Rumors and Assets
by Chibi-Chichan
Summary: The rumors at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and attitude it couldn't be too hard, right?
1. The Akatsuki's Pet

**Rumors and Assets**

The rumors at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: I've been wanting to write a Konoha Gakuen Den story, so here it is! At times, the characters may be slightly OOC, but I shall attempt to keep them in character as much as possible. And just to make this clear for people who don't really know:

**Suffix Usages:**

senpai/sempai - a senior student, a person in the class above etc.

kun - generally used for male colleagues

chan - used for pet names or close family members or friends

san - a respectful suffix, also can be used as a substitute for "Miss/Mr/Mrs" etc.

sama- a very respectful suffix displaying the person's higher status in comparison to the speaker, can also be used as substitute for "Master" etc.

**EDIT:** I can't believe I described Kisame completely wrong... edited for my own stupidity.

...

An embarrassed and annoyed Hinata Hyuuga shifted her school bag higher in her arms to conceal the "heavenly view" that had captured the attention of various passer-bys. She was glad that she had grown taller in height and had longer hair, but was it necessary for her to grow such _assets_ that attracted unnecessary attention from _both_ the male and female species? She could almost feel the daggers stab into her as each girl in Konoha Gakuen High glared at her as they passed and it was as if she had a perfect TV reception that allowed her to see what each guy thought as they eyed her attention-grabbing chest.

By the time she had reached the school's office, Hinata Hyuuga already felt exposed and sexually harassed by people's eyes. And she had only been in the school for five minutes.

And at this point, she had decided that she wouldn't enjoy her stay here. She was going to suffer a painful and unusual death of embarrassment and harassment from all the ogling and wolf-whistles she had received and perhaps numerous more if she remained in this dangerous environment. It would simply be a death-wish if she remained in this place.

She hurriedly knocked on the office door, praying that someone would open it quickly. Even with her school bag covering her chest, there was still the fact that her body curved in dangerous ways that now, as she thought about it, it was rather frightening.

And it wasn't helping that she could hear the murmuring going on about her.

"Come check out the new girl!"

"Hey, isn't that Hyuuga-senpai's cousin?"

"Check out her boobs!"

Mentally, Hinata wished to kick the high-pitched whiner who had practically screamed that but immediately reprimanded herself for thinking that. It was rude and unbecoming of her. She couldn't allow her embarrassment and irritation to overwhelm her.

Finally, the office's door swung open and behind it stood a lady with short black hair. "Ah, Hinata Hyuuga, I assume?" she asked as she stepped aside to allow Hinata room to walk in.

"Y-yes, that's me," Hinata replied awkwardly as she shuffled into the office, the door clicking shut behind her.

"Welcome, welcome Hinata to Konoha Gakuen High!" greeted a blonde-haired lady from her seat at a desk which had the name plate _Principal_ placed upon it. "As you are a new student here, we thought it would be helpful for you to have a guide that would lead you around the school and help you to feel comfortable with this new environment for you."

_It's impossible. I will never feel comfortable here. What with people addressing my chest rather than my face._ Hinata blushed furiously. _Even the thought is embarrassing._

"So, I made sure to have your tour guide (_Tour guide?_ Hinata repeated mentally) as someone from your homeroom!" Tsunade gestured to the person who sat in a chair at the left side of the room.

The entire conversation, Hinata had not noticed that there had been another person in the room. She gulped as her light eyes met his dark emotionless ones. He simply sat with his arms folded, quietly studying her, dark bangs of hair framing his face and the rest tied back in a loose ponytail at the back. The silence from him was nerve-racking; she had no idea what he was thinking as he watched her wordlessly.

One thing was for certain, his eyes were definitely only addressing her face, which was the one thing Hinata was thankful for. Her thoughts were interrupted as the Principal-Hinata recalled her name to be Tsunade from the acceptance letter she had received-made an introduction.

"Hinata, this is Itachi Uchiha. He will be your senpai and guide around the school." As Tsunade said this, she smiled genuinely, as if she were pleased with her choice for the new girl.

_Oh, Kami-sama... no. Where would someone get that sad idea?_

Hinata's gaze returned to the silent senior and she wished she could pinch herself, to see that it was all a dream and that she hadn't enrolled into this school and was actually busy weaving flower crowns and prancing about happy and free...

"Well then, I shall leave this to you Itachi!"

At this, Itachi silently stood and simply glanced at Hinata who wondered what it was meant to mean until she realised when he strode past her and opened the office door.

He wanted her to follow.

Inwardly, Hinata sobbed. She really hated charades. Mainly because she sucked at it. And now, she would be forced to play it all day.

She trudged after her silent companion, keeping her guard up with her school bag now held high and tucked underneath her chin protectively.

However, no matter what she tried, more and more people began to stare at the pair but she noticed that it was with a new and different interest. All the same attention wasn't something that Hinata craved for and she ducked her head down, her hair falling over her face as she blushed several shades darker than usual.

"Who's this little birdie, Itachi-san?" a male voice asked.

Hinata looked up to see another senior-most likely Itachi's class-saunter up to them. His blue hair shot up naturally and his golden eyes sparkled with mirth, the corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk.

It shocked Hinata to actually hear a deep voice issue from Itachi's mouth as he finally spoke.

"A new student. I've been assigned to look after her," Itachi explained briefly his apathetic expression never changing.

The senior across from them laughed. "What's the Principal doing? Thinking she can completely control us by giving our gang these responsibilities." He then turned and smirked at Hinata, alarming her. "Hey, so does that mean you're going to bring her along to our gang? I don't know if our leader will like it though."

_Gang? Leader?_ It took a while for it to finally register in Hinata's brain. _A gang!_ Her eyes widened in horror. _Yankees! Yakuzas! Crazy Japanese gangsters! Danger! Danger!_ Her mind reeled and she was prepared to faint.

"Kisame," Itachi replied calmly, "you know our Leader has agreed to deal with these responsibilities as it aids our plans."

_Plans?_

Hinata was beginning to hyperventilate. What had she been thinking when she enrolled into this school? If she had known that she would be in such a dangerous predicament where she would become involved in a Yankee high school gang she wouldn't have enrolled in the first place.

_Why Kami-sama? Why did I allow Neji-nii-san to convince me to attend this school?_ Hinata cried mentally.

"Hmm, I think your charge is hyperventilating."

Itachi turned his head slightly in Hinata's direction before he looked away, his face emotionless and uncaring. "We have homeroom to go to. There's no need to cause such a fuss over your first day of school, how foolish."

"Hah, you have no heart as usual, Itachi," Kisame grinned. He turned to Hinata again. "Come on, we're all in the same homeroom, make sure you don't lag behind, it's already a burden to drag you around like this," he explained, equally as heartless.

"Y-yes," Hinata managed to stammer, still not quite able to overcome the overwhelming pieces of information she had obtained.

She had only managed to walk a few steps forward when a dark wind shot past her. She blinked several times until she realised that it had been the dark-haired teen fighting Itachi now who had run past her so swiftly.

He aimed another kick at Itachi who easily dodged it before retaliating with an elbow to his face, pushing him back and sending him crashing into the floor.

"Damn it, Itachi!" yelled the teen as he pulled himself back onto his feet before charging at the senior once more.

Hinata stared at him with wide eyes. Last she had checked, fighting was not allowed at school.

Itachi slammed his fist against the teen's jaw causing him to collide into a nearby locker from the force.

Hinata's eyes widened even further. Definitely not allowed.

"Ahh... uhh..." Hinata began, raising an arm slightly, unsure of whether she should speak up or not.

"You son of a-!" the dark-haired teen began as he pushed himself off of the locker, only to meet Itachi's fist once more.

"AHH! U-Uchiha-s-senpai!" Hinata managed to stammer, frightened that if she were to do nothing that the dark-haired teen would be hurt even further.

Her cry was ignored however as Itachi walked over to the teen who was now attempting to push himself back onto his feet. He kicked the boy with far less force than before, but enough to knock him back down to agitate him.

"Foolish little brother," Itachi said as he continued his way down the corridor.

Hinata stared at Itachi's retreating back in amazement. He didn't even bother with the teen anymore and she was sure he was hurt from all the brutal hits Itachi had given him.

Something then clicked in her brain, like the switch of a light bulb suddenly being turned on. Had he just called the teen his younger brother?

Kisame snorted, amused by Itachi's actions and also continued along the corridor, not once glancing back at Hinata or the fallen teen.

"Damn it!" Itachi's younger brother cursed as he slammed his fist into the ground. "How dare he!"

"Uh-m..." Hinata began as she walked over and kneeled beside him, reaching into her bag and drawing out a small jar. "Umm... h-here... some ointment... for the wounds..." Hinata said in an unsure tone, holding the jar out to the younger Uchiha.

She could see it now. They really did look like brothers.

The younger Uchiha however, seemed to have a rather moody disposition. He glared up at her and growled, "Leave me alone."

Alarmed by this reply, Hinata was unsure of whether to simply leave the ointment with him or to take it back. She hadn't expected him to reply rudely to her wish to help.

His angry eyes narrowed when she did not move. "I said for you to leave me alone didn't I?" His voice was slightly raised causing Hinata to jump.

"I-I'm sorry..." she stammered, pocketing her ointment jar and quickly getting up to her feet. She was frightened of this moody Uchiha who didn't seem at all like the senior that was assigned to look after her.

Wishing only to get away from the uncomfortable and terrified feeling that she felt around him, she walked away briskly, leaving behind a moody teen to glare at her retreating back.

She rounded the corner and almost collided into someone had she not stopped in time. Unfortunately, the other person wasn't paying attention to where they were walking and bumped into her anyway causing her to sigh.

_Why do people do that?_ She thought wearily.

"I'm sorry, please don't mind me," she said as she prepared to step around the person and find where Itachi and Kisame were.

"My, my," said the black-haired teen, a smile constantly on his bespectacled face. "Nice size. Better than most around here."

It took a while for Hinata to realise what he was referring to before she was blushing herself into flames. "Uh... uh..." was all she managed to stammer in response.

The teen ignored her stammering and put out a hand for her to shake. "I'm Sai. May I know your size?" he asked, his hand still hovering in the air, waiting for the nervous and speechless Hinata to shake it.

"That's enough, Sai," grumbled an annoyed pink-haired girl who hit him on the top of his head as she passed. "We have homeroom to go to." She turned and addressed Hinata who was still too embarrassed to form any words. "Sorry about that, this guy's really horrible like that."

"Sai, you dirty creep. You freak everyone out," added a blonde-haired youth as he came to a stop next to the pink-haired girl.

"Uhh..." Hinata stammered. It was great and all to be away from the awkward silence that fell upon her when she was following behind Itachi but she really didn't want to be late to homeroom. "Um... y-you wouldn't happen to know where U-Uchiha-senpai went, d-do you?"

Three pairs of different coloured eyes turned to stare at her in surprise.

"Do you mean Itachi?" the blonde-haired teen asked, pulling a face. His jaw then suddenly dropped as he stared at something behind Hinata.

"He's in our homeroom. Are you the new student?" an annoyed voice asked from behind Hinata, making her jump.

She suddenly felt uneasy and knew who it was.

"Sasuke-_teme_!" the blonde-haired one shouted, pointing at the younger Uchiha. "What the heck happened to you?" he asked in genuine concern.

"Shut up, idiot," Sasuke said as Hinata turned her head to stare at him. He wiped his mouth clean of blood with the back of his hand before glancing at the Hyuuga, clear irritation marring his decent face.

Decent to Hinata probably equated to extremely large fanclub. If he wasn't so moody, Hinata would probably change her mind to good-looking; good-looking meaning to her someone who also had a good personality and temperament. At this moment, she doubted Sasuke Uchiha would fit that category.

"Are you the new Hyuuga girl?" Sasuke asked roughly, giving her a condescending look as he walked around to stand in front of her, Hinata's eyes following his movements.

Hinata gulped. He was _very _intimidating. And rude. She wasn't sure how to answer him without him biting her head off for no apparent reason.

"Yes, she would be our charge."

A heavy hand fell on Hinata's shoulder from behind, alarming her.

"Let's go, Hyuuga-san," a man with tied up blonde-hair said, his head over her shoulder allowing her to glimpse the long fringe that fell over one half of his face.

"You're a part of the Akatsuki gang!" cried the pink-haired girl. "Why would Neji-kun's cousin be with you guys?"

"It's rather annoying but Itachi's been given the duty to look after this girl by the Principal and sadly enough he's not doing a good job of it, though I doubted he would from the very beginning, hn," explained the gang member lightly, hand still placed heavily on Hinata's shoulder. "Well, we best be going to homeroom now, I can't keep Sasori-sama waiting for me since he gets really mad about that, hn."

The Akatsuki member, grabbed Hinata's arm and began to lead her away when someone stopped them in their tracks. In front of them stood finally someone Hinata recognised. She was relieved.

"Let go of my cousin," Neji said in a dangerously quiet voice.

Well, Hinata was relieved to see her cousin, but it didn't mean she was prepared to watch another fight.

"I don't believe you're in our homeroom Neji-_chan_," the Akatsuki member replied tauntingly, his smirk widening at the scowl that then covered Neji's face. "I'm just helping Hyuuga-san by escorting her to homeroom since _I_ actually am in the same homeroom. So if you don't mind, get out of the way, hn."

Unwilling to leave Hinata in the care of an Akatsuki member, Neji stood his ground, staring down the blonde across from him.

"Now, now, this isn't going to turn into a fight is it?" called a voice behind Hinata.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Neji exclaimed at the new arrival.

"Please allow Deidara and Hinata to pass by, Neji, or else you'll all be late to homeroom," Kakashi instructed calmly.

Begrudgingly, Neji stepped aside and glared as Deidara passed, dragging Hinata alongside him. Hinata stared sadly after her cousin as she passed wishing she were in his homeroom instead. She sighed and closed her eyes.

It was all only wishful-thinking.

...

Wishful thinking or not, Hinata wished hard that she wasn't in this homeroom.

Her homeroom consisted of four seniors in year 12 (Itachi, Kisame, Deidara and Sasori), five from years 11 (Lee, Gaara, Karin, Temari and Shigure (NNC - not a Naruto character)), four from years 10 (Sasuke, Naruto, Sai and Hitori (NNC)), three from her year, year 9 including herself (Sakura and Rina (NNC)) and nine more students below her year in years 7 and 8.

The problem of course was that the four gang members insisted that she sit with them and having no other choice she did and received numerous stares from the rest of her classmates.

_No, I am not a yankee_, she tried to mentally tell every student who turned to stare at her. _No, I am not a part of this gang, so please stop looking at me like I am_.

It was not only this, but the fact that every time Itachi appeared to let his guard down, like stare out the window randomly, Sasuke would take this opportunity to attack his brother, only to receive a whack to the head for his brashness and a reprimand directed to both of them from their teacher, Kurenai.

Hinata was beginning to worry that the effect of Itachi's hits was causing severe brain-damage on Sasuke as she watched him prepare to launch another attack at his brother. She wondered vaguely what drove him to such reckless actions besides the possible brain damage.

"Hn, I wonder what our leader will say about Hyuuga-san," Deidara thought aloud, bored of watching Sasuke's repeated failures to successfully attack his brother.

Tensing, Hinata prayed that their leader didn't decide to beat her up or something. That was the last thing she would need on her first day of school.

"Hopefully, Hidan doesn't consider her to be his next sacrifice," Kisame said, brushing dust off of his table in boredom.

Hinata wanted to faint. "S-Sacrifice?" she repeated, horrified.

"Yeah, you're a virgin right?" Kisame asked bluntly, disregarding the deep blush that burned Hinata's cheeks. "Well, it would be boring if Hidan decided sacrifice you, we haven't had a toy to play with for a long time. Wouldn't want our new toy to be broken already," Kisame said with a wicked grin.

Hinata could hear crashing in her ears. Her world was spiraling out of control and smashing into pieces around her. She really did want to faint.

"I hate waiting for recess to arrive," Sasori grumbled, staring out the window.

Gulping, Hinata was praying for recess to not arrive at all. She suddenly didn't feel too well and she most definitely did _not_ want to meet the Akatsuki gang leader.

She was sure he would rip off her head if he wanted to.

...

"We. Must. Keep. Her!"

They were the first words that issued from the mask wearing Akatsuki leader, Tobi and at the thought of being considered a possession of some sort, Hinata had the sudden urge to run away. She had not been expecting this sort of reaction to her appearance.

Unfortunately, recess had arrived too swiftly for her, as did many things she dreaded. Still for Tobi to open his arms widely and in such a welcoming way at her, she wondered whether she had gone insane to have imagined that she would be accepted so easily.

"What the hell?" barked the person Kisame had talked about in homeroom, Hidan. "You're just going to fucking-" Hinata winced at his coarse language, "-accept her into our gang? What the flying fuck?" Hinata cringed once again, wishing she could cover her ears.

"If our leader wishes it to be so, then it will," the member who had been introduced as Pein said. The senior next to him known as Konan simply observed the scenario before her quietly.

The other member, Kakuzu simply snorted and resumed drinking his ice tea, ignoring Hidan as he let out a string of vulgar words, disappointed because he couldn't use Hinata as his next sacrifice. Kisame grinned at Hinata's unbelievable luck and Deidara snickered at the horrified expression on her face. Itachi however, sat to the side, busily pulling out his sandwich for lunch, only looking up to study Hinata's shocked and frightened face occasionally.

"Come pet-chan! There's enough room in Akatsuki for you!" Tobi sang happily as he grabbed Hinata's head and yanked her towards him with the intention of petting her.

Not knowing what else to do, Hinata threw a pleading look in Itachi's direction who simply glanced at her and then looked away, ignoring her mental cries for help that she was sending to him, choosing instead to eat his sandwich in silence.

_Goodbye my youth!_ Hinata's mind sobbed, trapped in a headlock as Tobi stroked the top of her head. _A pet of the Akatsuki! How did it end up like this? Neji-nii-san, where are you?_

_..._

End chapter 1.

A/N: Poor Hinata, what shall happen to her next? I think I got really carried away with this chapter, it's so long. XD Please kindly leave a review for an update, heheh. XD


	2. For the Love of Tomatoes

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumors at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: Well, I really wanted to update this and hopefully I don't get too carried away as I write this...? (I'm really unsure, I bet this might end up far too long once again, sorry!) Just to make it clear about the school day's structure, there are five periods in the whole day. Homeroom, Period 1 and 2 are before recess, Period 3 and 4 are after recess and before lunch and Period 5 is last and after lunch.

**One extra note** and I know I'm rambling too long but I've made Tobi the leader in this as it makes sense with the recent Naruto chapters where he's able to even order Pein around. In a sense, I reckon Pein acts as the leader but in reality, Tobi is the real leader working in the shadows, that's my theory at least. XD

**EDITED: For the sanity of my reader's I've fixed the horrible spelling/grammatical and even Japanese errors I made! D: Thank you Mei Sanniang for pointing out the "Yakuza" issue. :D**

Anyways, onto the next chapter!

...

The first day of school had finally ended and Hinata flung herself onto her bed, exhausted. Most of the time, she had spent attempting to keep up with Itachi as he quickly led her to her next class before vanishing mysteriously every time she would turn to thank him. When she had asked him about it before reaching her fifth period class, he explained briefly in these exact words:

"I don't have any more time to waste on you. I have class as well."

Hinata sighed into her pillow. So she really was a burden as Kisame had said. For Itachi to have said that to her face so easily, it must be true. Hinata was already a burden to her family and now she was one at school as well.

Tears formed at the corners of her eyes but she quickly sat up and shook her head. She couldn't cry anymore; she wouldn't allow herself to. It was pointless for her to cry and if others saw it, she would only become more burdensome, weak and useless. She forced the tears back and grabbed the day's homework from her bag to prevent her mind from wandering back to the thought of her being a burden.

It wouldn't help if she were to become upset over these things.

Yet, as she began working on her simultaneous equations, she couldn't help but think that she was indeed a burdensome and useless person.

Two tears splashed onto her book before Hinata snapped her maths book shut and hurriedly made her way to the bathroom to wash her face. There was no one at home besides her and yet, she still felt as if she were doing the walk of shame, her weakness showing in the glittering tears on her cheeks.

...

"Yo, Hinata-chan!" Deidara greeted with a grin as Hinata made her way to her locker.

Hinata's face fell.

_Chan? Whatever happened to the formality before?_

Had they already become friends so quickly that she hadn't noticed? Was a one day acquaintance enough to have such informality between two people?

"You're rather early to school, hn," Deidara said cheerily, the sight of his grin unnerving Hinata.

"Y-yes."

_That's right. I'm the pet of Akatsuki now. Why Kami-sama? Why did I stupidly enroll into this school?_ Hinata cried mentally.

"Erm..." she began, her voice quiet as she responded, "I w-woke up early today... s-so, I th-thought I might as well just come early to school," was her explanation as she brought up her fingertips to her lips worriedly, blushing.

"Pet-chan, you are so adorable!" exclaimed a familiar voice from behind Hinata before she was literally attacked. Tobi had jumped up and hugged her from behind before proceeding to stroke her hair as one would do to a cat or dog.

She inwardly sighed, wishing she could wriggle out of his grasp but knew that the Akatsuki were a dangerous bunch and decided that for her own safety and perhaps others, she would not do anything to make them mad. "Why a-are both of m-my senpai here so early too?" she asked, trying to ignore how her head tilted each time Tobi stroked her head.

Tobi cheered excitedly. "Did you hear that Deidara? Did you? Pet-chan said "_my_ senpais"! Isn't that adorable?" he asked before proceeding to stroke Hinata's head, murmuring about how wonderful a pet she was.

Hinata blushed, realising her words were mistaken and that she hadn't intended at all for it to mean that way.

"Yeah, yeah, you idiot, I heard it," Deidara said, a gang member who was clearly annoyed by their leader despite his position. "Well, I'm actually here to work on my artwork at school," he said, answering Hinata's question.

"Oh, you do art?" Hinata asked in interest.

"Yes, art is quite a blast," Deidara said with a grin. "And I mean literally. You see, I use these paint ball guns when doing an artwork and it's always exciting to see it explode as it makes contact with the canvas, hn. My teacher thinks its unorthodox but she can't stop me." At this, Deidara threw back his head and laughed loudly.

Hinata sweat-droppped. _He brings in guns to school?_ A cold wind blew past her. _I most certainly will die with these people if I'm not careful._ _I fear for my life, Kami-sama._

"Stop being an idiot, Deidara," came Sasori's voice gruffly as he made his way towards the trio, a canvas under his arm. "You're being showed up by that perverted junior _(A/N: LOL, guess who? XD) _in the art class and you can still laugh stupidly like that? I wonder sometimes why Kurenai-sensei just doesn't throw you out of the class. You're a fool when it comes to true art."

Deidara snorted. "Hah, true art is what mine is: a blast! If you can't enjoy yourself while you do it, then it's not real art is it, hn?"

"What do you mean by that, Deidara?" Sasori asked, his eyes narrowing.

"NNNOOOO!" Tobi wailed, covering Hinata's ears. "Do not fight in front of our precious Pet-chan!"

A vein popped out in Deidara's head. "Shut up, you immature buffoon!" he yelled, pointing at Tobi angrily. "Every time you open your mouth, you prove how much of an idiot you are!"

"Deidara," a deep and velvet voice spoke, silencing the party.

Itachi Uchiha had arrived and a previously non-existent wind blew his hair as he walked towards the group. Hinata checked around to see if any windows were open. How was he able to make such an impressive entrance?

"Must you use such a loud tone in the early morning?" Itachi asked softly and Hinata gulped nervously. She could hear danger bells ringing in her ears at the tone of Itachi's voice and looked away, hoping that he would not look at her. The last thing she needed as a pet of the Akatsuki was to have her head chomped off by a murderous-sounding Uchiha.

Blinking, Hinata noticed a green-haired senior walking beside Itachi and she tried to not be rude by wondering how he could have such oddly coloured hair. The fact was that she indeed had strangely coloured indigo hair herself but she had never encountered someone with green hair and wondered vaguely if it was his natural colour like hers was. The senior seemed to notice her staring and turned his gaze to hers which she quickly averted, suddenly taking interest in her shoes as rouge tinged her pale cheeks.

"Ahh, I don't believe we've introduced Zetsu to you, Pet-chan," Tobi spoke, causing Hinata to lift her head but her gaze hovered on the green-haired seniors pant-covered knees. "He was away yesterday because... why were you away yesterday?" Tobi asked, cocking his head to the side comically.

"Ugh... stomach ache..." was Zetsu's grunted reply.

Hinata could feel his eyes on her face and she dared not raise her eyes to confirm that fear. An arm draped around her shoulders and startled, she looked up to be see that it was simply Deidara who wore a grin that didn't ease the fear.

"Did you know Hinata-chan, that our buddy Zetsu here is a cannibal?" Hinata tensed under Deidara's arm. "Yup, he's probably eyeing you right now, trying to figure out which part of you would be best to eat once Hidan sneaks you away and sacrifices you whilst our idiotic leader is looking in the other direction."

Wide-eyed, Hinata avoided looking at Zetsu, wondering if he was in fact thinking of tying her to a spit and cooking her over a large fire. _Ugh, bad thoughts_... Hinata suddenly felt queasy.

"NO! NEVER! I WILL NEVER LET MY GUARD DOWN AROUND YOU ALL!" Tobi declared, seizing Hinata away from Deidara. "I will _never_ let you eat my Pet-chan!" he vowed, one hand pinning Hinata's head to his chest, the other pointing accusingly at Zetsu.

"An idiot to the core," Deidara sighed, shrugging in defeat. "I was simply teasing her."

"Look at her!" Tobi cried indignantly, spinning Hinata around to display her flushed face (she was suffocating because she couldn't breathe against Tobi's chest). "She's traumatised! Don't say such intentionally harmful things to her!"

"Argh, I can't stand this idiocy, I don't have time to waste on you idiots," Sasori grumbled, rubbing his temple as if he had a headache.

Unable to stop her curiosity, Hinata spoke, "Are y-you finding somewhere to continue your artwork, Sasori-senpai?"

Sasori's head shot up at her question and his gaze shifted to her causing a deeper blush to cover her cheeks. She knew that some of the Akatsuki were either not interested or were not entirely happy with her presence in their gang. Sasori was one of the "if-you-didn't-waste-so-much-of-our-time-I-couldn't-care-less-about-your-existence". The fact was that Hinata consumed most of the Akatsuki's time and it annoyed Sasori having to wait for another argument started because of Hinata's presence to end, so the cold stare from him was almost expected. Almost.

"Why would _you_ be interested for?" he asked, his tone as cold as his stare. "You probably aren't even artistically inclined," he added harshly, before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Ah! Sasori-sama! Wait up, I have to work on my artwork as well!" Deidara called after his retreating back before running to catch up to him.

Hinata stared down at her hands sadly. Had she unintentionally insulted him somehow?

"U-Uhm... I have to go to my locker now," she said quickly, bowing. "Please excuse me." She turned and dashed down the corridor, hoping they hadn't noticed the upset expression on her face. It would be just more annoying for them to see how easily upset she was.

"Do you know the way to your homeroom?" Tobi called after her.

"Y-yes!" she lied as she ran down the corridor.

Hinata raced around the corner out of their sight and finally slowed down, sighing in relief. At least she wasn't upset enough to start crying. She looked up and noticed someone at the locker next to hers and would have turned around and walked away if he hadn't noticed her.

Sasuke Uchiha peered around his locker, annoyed and wondering which girl was staring at him this time. He wasn't a morning person (yet for some reason he was an early riser) and the fact that there were still girls to ogle at him at this unpleasant time of day irritated him.

"U-uh..." Hinata started, not liking the awkward silence hanging over them. "G-Good morning Uchiha-san," she greeted, bowing briefly before shuffling towards her locker, wishing her hands were steady so she could open it quickly and hide behind its door.

"Hmph," came Sasuke's uncaring reply, turning back to his locker to draw out the books he would need for his first two periods.

Despite her attempt, the awkward and heavy silence remained and her trembling didn't cease even as she managed to open the locker and hide her head behind the door. A wall between them, that was all she needed, even if it was only small and temporary, as long as she didn't have to face him whenever he glared at her.

A hand gripped the top of her locker door and pulled it back enough to reveal her frightened face and his agitated one. "Do you have a problem with me?" he asked coldly, continuing to glare at her.

Mutely, Hinata shook her head violently, wishing he would relinquish her locker door so that the wall would come between and shield her from those angry eyes of his. She wondered vaguely why he was even directing his anger at her; she couldn't think of anything she had done in the past minute to aggravate him.

Abruptly, he startled her and made her jump by slamming his locker shut, still facing her with his glaring eyes. Hinata wished silently that she could run away without it seeming rude. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"L-like what?"

"Like I'm going to devour you or something," Sasuke said with a shrug, the annoyance never leaving his eyes.

"U-Um... uh..." Hinata was blushing again and she knew it. She didn't know what else she could do. _I mean, how can I explain to him that I think his face is scary without offending him?_

Sasuke's hand remained planted on his locker door and he drummed his fingers on the metal, waiting impatiently. He really hated mornings. He could already feel a headache arising and it wasn't even 8:30 yet. Clicking his tongue, Sasuke tried to suppress the rage he knew had been building up all morning ever since he found out his brother had intentionally set his alarm clock to 5:30 and had taken the last tomato for his own sandwich for lunch. And Sasuke knew the older Uchiha had done it to spite him, after all, Itachi hated tomatoes. The thought of his brother throwing away the tomatoes that were meant for _him_ made his blood boil.

"Look, Hyuuga... what's your name again?" he snapped, making Hinata jump once more which irritated him. Why was she so jumpy around him?

"H-Hinata."

"Hinata," he repeated plainly and Hinata didn't know whether to take it as an insult, "I'm not in the mood in the mornings so avoid talking to me at all costs. Don't greet me; don't do whatever, it'll piss me off," he warned, scowling even further.

Hinata simply stared at him. So he wasn't intending to tell her off? He just wanted to warn her that he was really moody in the mornings (which she could already see at a glance)?

Sasuke stared at her expectantly before sighing in agitation, "Do you understand?" he asked and Hinata realised he was trying to remain calm and collected.

She nodded quickly not wanting to anger him any further. Was he telling her this because he was worried he may blow up at her in the future? Or did he usually tell this to people when they hardly knew him? She had no more time to ponder on this as a voice rang out through the corridor.

"Sasuke!" called the voice of the blonde-haired boy, Naruto from yesterday. The blonde teen accompanied by the other two from the day before-Sai and Sakura-walked beside him as they came to a stop in front of Sasuke. "Where've you been? Oh, hey!" he exclaimed when he noticed Hinata. "You're that girl that was being harassed by Sai yesterday!"

Not knowing whether or not to feel insulted, Hinata simply nodded in response.

"Oh wow... but hey, how come you're talking to her, Sasuke? AH! Are you bullying her, Sasuke-teme?"

"I'm not in the mood to talk to you, Naruto," Sasuke warned with a growl, shoving his hands into his pant pockets and turning away to leave.

Naruto gasped in horror, staring at Sasuke's retreating back with wide disbelieving eyes. "IMPOSSIBLE! HAVE YOU COME TO HARASS HER TOO?"

Without warning, Sasuke's fist flew and connected with Naruto's jaw making him stumble backwards. "NOT EVERYONE'S A PERVERT IN THE MAKING LIKE YOU!" Sasuke yelled, his eyes blazing angrily.

"I'M NOT A PERVERT! I'M JUST INTRIGUED!"

"THAT'S THE SAME AS ADMITTING THAT YOU _ARE _A PERVERT!"

Hinata simply stared wide-eyed at the scene before her and wondered if this was the result of Sasuke being moody in the mornings, or because Naruto had just said something completely inappropriate.

"Don't worry, this usually happens," said Sai with his usual smile, suddenly standing next to Hinata. He turned to her "how-did-you-get-over-here" face, his smile never leaving his face as he spoke, "Oh yes, I didn't get your size yesterday, what did you say it was...?"

"I assure you that you would not want to know," came a deep smooth voice.

Hinata turned around to see that Itachi and Kisame stood behind her and felt a mixture of fear and relief that they had come and prevented her from having to answer Sai's inquiry.

"Why not?" Sai asked, his smile never faltering.

"Because Itachi's permitted me to break that perverted face of yours if you _do_ get an answer," answered Kisame, grinning wickedly as he cracked his knuckles.

There was a pause. "Well I know for a fact that at a glance, her size appears to be around-"

Sakura clamped a hand over Sai's mouth, laughing nervously. "Well... uh, we'll just be going now! Narrruuuttooo!" she growled, grabbing him by the ear. "We're going now. Come on, Sasuke-kun."

However, Sasuke remained where he was, glaring at his older brother. Itachi turned his gaze to him, as if only just noticing the younger Uchiha.

"Sasuke? You are remarkably early to school today," remarked the older Uchiha, his expression as blank as usual, obviously showing no remorse for what part he had to play in Sasuke's early rising.

Hinata could almost see the several veins pop out on Sasuke's forehead and watched worriedly as the muscle under his eye twitched convulsively. She stared from Sasuke to Itachi, wondering whether another fight would ensue right before her eyes. It seemed fighting was the only way to express yourself in this school.

Clenching his fist, Sasuke strode forward calmly and it appeared as if he were going to walk past his brother. Hinata silently hoped he would continue walking as she didn't want to see another fight break out, especially when she knew Sasuke would suffer more severe blows to his head; more unnecessary brain damage for him. Her hopes were dashed when Sasuke came to a stop next to Itachi, silence and tension heavy in the air.

"I will look through every single bin in the school and by the end of the day, if I find some tomato slices thrown away, I _will_ kill you," Sasuke said darkly before he continued to stride away.

If people attending this school were willing to kill each other over tomato slices then Hinata was definitely going to visit the Principal soon and sign out of this school. Yes, she could just enrol into another school, in fact, that idea was very appealing to Hinata at the moment.

"We shall go to Homeroom now. Do not fall behind," Itachi ordered, staring pointedly at Hinata before turning and making his way down the corridor.

Quickly, Hinata bowed to his retreating back wanting to show her gratitude for the Akatsuki member's interruption (she wasn't sure how she would've avoided answering Sai's question). "Thank you!"

"I told you not to fall behind," was Itachi's only reply as he continued down the corridor, not once looking back.

"You heard him," Kisame said, nudging Hinata forward with his elbow, not wanting to wait on her.

_Yes, enrolment into another school sounds very appealing indeed._

_..._

A senior from year 11, held out his hand as she entered Homeroom, a grin on his face. "You must be Neji's cousin. I am Rock-Lee," he introduced, waiting for her to shake his hand.

"Ahh..." Hinata bowed her head and shook his hand. "I-I'm... Hinata Hyuuga..."

"Hinata," Lee repeated thoughtfully, his other hand stroking his chin in the manner that someone with a beard would when in deep thought. "That is indeed an appropriate name for you. A sunny place indeed," he said with a smile, heat rising into Hinata's cheeks.

"Th-thank you. It's a pl-pleasure to meet you," Hinata mumbled to the floor, pulling her hand away from his and bowing.

"No, no. The pleasure is mine! I am glad to have met the cousin of my rival!" replied Lee brightly, teeth sparkling in his smile as he gave her the thumbs up.

_Rival? What does he mean by rival?_ "R-Rival?" Hinata couldn't help repeating blankly.

"Yes, this is Lee. He's our school's elite soccer player and had always considered Neji his rival since the day they both started at this school and Neji achieved the highest mark for our grade on the entrance exam," explained Temari who sat on a table near the entrance of the classroom, her glasses shining in the light as if they had been overly polished. "Neji is also our student council president and the number one Martial Arts expert in our school." (Although Hinata already knew this, she couldn't help but be in awe of all of her cousin's achievements in comparison to herself. What had she done so far in this school besides attract attention to her assets?)

"Kukuku... but Lee has never been able to defeat Neji, thus his attempts have all been in futile," added Gaara, who adjusted his glasses with a smirk.

"That is far too cruel, Gaara of the Nerds!" Lee cried, storming up to where Gaara and Temari sat. "I would prefer that you not speak so out of line!"

Deidara placed a hand on Hinata's shoulder and lowered his mouth near her ear. "Those two people are apart of the trio that form the '_Megane Brigade_'. In short, they're bespectacled nerd retards, hn. The one with the red hair and Yakuza-like tattoo on his forehead is the leader. He's also your class' president and enjoys wearing eyeliner."

"IT'S NATURAL DAMN IT!" shouted the indignant nerd, re-adjusting his highly polished glasses once more.

Deidara rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it is." He muttered into Hinata's ear, "Don't listen to a word he says. He's a bold-faced liar and should have rocks thrown at him, hn."

"U-um..." Hinata began, uncomfortable at Deidara's closeness. She pulled away and turned to face him, glad to have an excuse to not be so close to him. "U-um... he's my senpai by two years... then how come I'm in the same class as him...?"

"It is referred to as, 'The Designated Class'," answered Itachi, surprising Hinata. "They place the students with the highest entrance marks around the same age group into this one class. There is a designated class for the ages 12-14, 15-17 and finally, for our grade's year, they simply place the best students of varying subjects into a class. As long as the students are at the top or near it for their classes, they will be placed into the designated class in their final year. With each year, they have a liking to nickname the designated classes by the ages: the juniors are named _Genin_, the age group above _Chuunin_ and finally our year are known as _Jounin_. These names however, are only given to the students of the Designated Class. That is how our school system works."

Hinata knew that during Itachi's explanation, her mouth had fallen open at the overload of information and the fact that he had spoken so much (and amusingly enough, Deidara and Sasori, being the art students, drew up chibi diagrams to accompany the explanation). "S-so... my class yesterday... that's why we had student's from m-mixed years?" she asked in awe of the information revealed to her. She hadn't known that there was such a complicated school system.

"Yeah, none of your teacher's probably said anything because they all assumed that you knew what class you had been placed in, what with all the students being in three different years," Kisame said, peeling open an orange and popping a piece of the fruit into his mouth.

"B-but... how did you know I-I was in the Designated Class?" They couldn't possibly have seen her whilst she was in her classes, they were busy with their own classes to be bothered with hers.

"We broke into the school's filing cabinet and read the reports on which students were in the Designated class," Deidara said airily, his expression of one who wasn't concerned about their law-breaking actions.

Hinata's jaw dropped further. "Y-you br-broke into...?" She was really going to faint.

Luckily, the bell rang signalling that Homeroom was to commence and she took a seat at what she was now sure was to be her permanent spot for the rest of the year with the four Akatsuki members. She couldn't be blamed for being extremely worried about what recess might hold in stall for her. After all, she was hanging out with a gang of juvenile delinquents and just about anything could be expected.

...

"Climb it," Kisame ordered with a grin, pointing his thumb to the ladder that stood ominously before Hinata, perturbation rising in her throat at the sight of it.

She attempted to gulp it down, her hands beginning to perspire at the height of the ladder. It reached all the way to the building's rooftop. Not that she was entirely fearful of heights, but just the thought of climbing the foreboding ladder made her stomach queasy. Uneasy thoughts of the ladder rungs breaking or the ladder breaking off from the wall settled into her mind and the ending of her plummeting to her death replayed in each scenario.

"Climb it," came Kisame's amused voice again as he nudged her towards the ladder.

"But..." she began weakly, her stomach becoming more unsettled. "I'm wearing a sk-skirt." A pathetic excuse, a _very_ pathetic excuse but everyone had their dignity on stake nowadays didn't they?

An alarming bark came from Kisame and Hinata jumped in fright before realising it was simply his way of laughing. He suddenly stripped off his school jacket and threw it to her, grinning at her confused expression. "Tie it around your waist."

Looking for another way to avoid climbing the ladder, Hinata began to think of another question to ask. "U-uhm, why do y-you all sit up on the r-rooftop for recess and lunch? What about yesterday?"

"Yesterday, we were simply going easy on you because of the leader, but today you're going to sit up on the school's roof like we do; you're not being babied from today onwards. And besides, we shouldn't make Sasori wait for so long, he's short tempered when it comes to wasting time."

Remembering the cold look from earlier that day, Hinata swallowed hard and tied the jacket around her waist before gripping the highest rungs her hands could reach. She clenched her jaw and tried to summon her courage. After all, she had endured tougher ordeals before, right? She still couldn't stop the trembling as she began her slow climb up the ladder. Her breathing became laborious and she had to pause often to catch her breath and calm herself.

"What's up?" Kisame asked as he stopped below her, no concern in his voice but rather amusement.

Hinata gasped for air, gripping the ladder rungs tightly, fearing that her sweaty palms would make her slip. "V-Vert-tigo..." she stammered, a wave of nausea sweeping over her.

"Aw, come on, we're almost there."

"I-I..." Hinata struggled to breathe and her head leaned against one of the ladder rungs, her gaze directed to the distant ground below her.

_Dizzy..._

Suddenly, her grip loosened and her hands slipped off of the rungs and she began to fall gracefully backwards, no longer able to support her trembling body.

A hand reached out and grabbed the jacket around her waist, stopping her briefly. "Shit," Kisame growled, before quickly yanking her up by the jacket and grabbing her with one arm just in time for the jacket to slip and fall to the ground below. Grumbling, Kisame turned and look up to the top of the ladder, knowing he couldn't climb up one-handed without falling. "Hey, some help here!"

Itachi's head appeared over the ledge of the building and at the sight before him, he began to climb down the ladder, holding his hand out. "Hand her to me."

Nodding, Kisame shifted the dead weight in his arm and grunting with effort he pulled her up onto his shoulder. Itachi climbed down two more rungs before crouching easily, one hand lazily holding a rung near the top of the ladder for support as he reached down.

"She's heavier than she looks," Kisame warned as he pushed Hinata up by her back with one hand towards Itachi who wrapped his arm around her waist and effortlessly pulled her up towards him. "Or maybe not for a genius like you," Kisame said with a grin as Itachi wordlessly and almost too gracefully for any normal human pushed up with his feet, using his other hand near the top of the ladder to push him up further and flip him in the air, allowing his back to brush past the building's ledge and for him to land on his crouched feet.

There was wild applause from Tobi who shouted for an encore which Itachi chose to ignore.

Itachi laid Hinata down onto the concreted roof before making his way back to his usual spot on the roof's building, expressionless as usual and not a bead of sweat shone on his face as if the previous display had been effortless for him. "I would prefer if you handled her from here," he said coolly addressing the group generally as he seated himself in the shade of a shadow cast by the roof's exit door.

"Konan," Pein said simply.

"Yes," Konan answered, getting to her feet. She walked over to the unconscious Hyuuga and opened her bottle of water, tipping the contents onto her face. "Nap time has ended."

Coughing and spluttering, Hinata slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, wondering why she was suddenly wet. She was beginning to dry her face off with her sleeve when she felt the queasiness of her stomach. Not as strong as before, but still enough to make her feel ill. She groaned and rested her palms on the warm concrete below her.

_Concrete?_

Hinata looked up in surprise and gathered her surroundings. She was on the rooftop with the entire Akatsuki group. All she could remember was loosing her grip on the ladder rungs and falling. Had Kisame caught her and brought her up? Her brow knotted together and she stared down at her hands in embarrassment. She had been a burden yet again.

She looked back up and caught Zetsu staring at her, a shiver running down her spine as she remembered what had been revealed to her earlier that morning.

She wasn't sure how much more of this school she could take and it was only her second day. It had never occurred to her before how truly exhausting it was to attend a school, not only that but she was forced to sit with a group of juvenile delinquents.

Sighing inwardly, Hinata reached out to grab her lunchbox when she froze and stared at the empty spot before her. She pulled her arm back, sat still and tried to remember if she had been carrying it with her when she had been climbing the ladder. After racking her brains for some time, her jaw dropped in horror as she realised that she hadn't even brought her lunchbox with her and unwilling to face the ladder again, Hinata decided that it was best if she just missed out on recess. It was only recess after all, she could survive.

Silence fell upon the group as the familiar sound of a stomach rumbling was heard and to her embarrassment, immediately all eyes turned to her. Hinata could almost curse her stomach as it rumbled once more but knew that it was ill-mannered to do so.

"U-Uh..." she began awkwardly, staring at her hands in her lap. "Um... I kind of... f-forgot to br-bring my l-lunchbox..." Hinata explained, twisting her hands together nervously. "A-and w-well-"

"Yo," greeted a familiar voice casually by the ledge where the ladder was located.

Each head turned to the new arrival and Hinata couldn't help having her mouth fall open in surprise at the sight of Sasuke, lazily holding her lunchbox out towards her.

"You stupidly dropped this on your way out of class before recess," he said, his eyes cold as he scanned the faces of the Akatsuki before stopping on the other Uchiha.

"A-Ah-" Hinata was cut off once more.

"Why didn't you get the Yakuza-wannabe to bring it?" Deidara asked, glaring at the young genius.

"Because Naruto wasn't the one who picked up the lunchbox, I did. Besides, I was curious as to what you do on these rooftops," Sasuke explained loftily, coolly taking the glares directed at him.

"Well, now that you know what we do-eat our fucking lunch-, get the fuck lost!" Hidan demanded, his grip on his chopsticks tightening.

The air was tense and Hinata knew that a fight might ensue if any more words were exchanged so she hastily got to her feet and literally ran over to Sasuke who was preparing to reply with a snide remark. "Th-thank you!" she cried rather loudly, her mind filled with concern and a hope that she would not have to witness another fight.

Sasuke's eyes turned to address her with surprise. He had not expected her to dash up to him and shout her gratitude in his face like that.

Not wanting there to be any more arguing from the Akatsuki and Sasuke, Hinata continued to speak anxiously, not really processing what she was saying herself. "U-uh, th-thank you and please, feel free to h-have the t-tomato slices from my lunchbox."

Sasuke simply stared at her and it took Hinata a while to realise that the Akatsuki were staring at her too and all of this staring was being done too silently for Hinata's liking. Had she said something wrong? She had only offered the tomatoes because Sasuke had said previously that he was willing to search the school bins for them and why let him go through the trouble of that when she had tomatoes herself? When she reasoned that in her mind, it made complete sense to her and yet she was still receiving stares.

Coughing into his hand awkwardly, Sasuke lowered his gaze and dropped the lunchbox into Hinata's hands. "I... don't want your tomatoes," he replied in a somewhat embarrassed tone.

Hinata cocked her head to the side and watched as he glanced briefly at her lunchbox before tearing his eyes away again. He actually did want them.

Using sheer willpower alone, Sasuke turned away from the lunchbox with the trapped tomato slices that were calling for his help and felt his heart clench. He mentally apologised to the tomatoes who wept at their lost of not being consumed by an actual tomato-lover. As he lowered himself onto the ladder however, Sasuke glanced at Hinata and motioned for her to come forward. She approached him and he quickly muttered something to her before hurrying down the ladder. Hinata watched after his rushing form, a look of surprise on her face.

"Pet-chan? Are you okay? He didn't say anything cruel to you, did he?" Tobi asked as he approached Hinata who had remained watching Sasuke on the roof's ledge.

"Eh? Oh, n-no! Nothing cruel at all!"

"Hey, what the fuck did he tell you just then?" Hidan asked, staring at Hinata accusingly.

"Eh? N-nothing!"

"Nothing my ass!"

"It r-really wasn't anything!"

Hinata seated herself on the concrete, knowing that the Akatsuki were still watching her and opened her lunchbox, trying to remain calm so that she could eat her recess without anyone accusing her of being a liar any further. After she opened her lunchbox, the first things that greeted her were the freshly sliced tomatoes that she had cut up early that morning.

_"Could you... give me those tomatoes in our next class?"_

Hinata wondered to herself if the brain damage was the reason for Sasuke's urge to eat tomatoes. She smiled to herself anyway as she put the tomato slices to the side and ate the rest of her food.

…

End Chapter 2.

A/N: **Thank you so much to all the kind reviews I got! :3 **Oh my, I got really carried away with this one... I just kept typing and couldn't stop... Sorry, was that bad? I can't seem to help making these chapters long though... :P I apologise if there are any grammatical or spelling errors (But I'm Australian, so US spellers, most of them are not mistakes, just Aussie spelling XD). And YES! I _had_ to put in Sasuke's love for tomatoes! XD Well, please kindly leave a review, thanks! :)


	3. A Small Wound

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumors at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: OH MY GOODNESS! **I apologise for all the horrible errors I made in the last chapter!** D: This chapter, I'll try to proofread better, I'm so sorry! (The other one was too long and I have a minute attention span. XD) And school's starting this week... NOOO! :( Onto chapter three! (sorry, it's shorter than the second chapter, I was beginning to suffer from writer's block already... XD Hope you enjoy the Akatsuki interaction in here though, it's been written for a while now. :) )

...

It had almost become a daily routine now. Hinata would wake up early, pack her lunch-ensuring she cut up some fresh tomatoes and place the slices in her lunchbox-, arrive at school early and head to her locker to find Sasuke already at his. It seemed that everyday for the past week she had disregarded his warning to not greet him and would each day walk up to her locker, a nervous smile on her face as she would say "Good morning" to him, despite the fact that he hated mornings and thought darkly how it shouldn't be referred to as "good" at all. Most of the time, he would shoot a murderous glare at her and it was those days that Hinata knew something had occurred at his home concerning his brother that had put him in a foul mood.

It had been an entire week of this same routine and sitting with the Akatsuki at lunchtimes that Hinata began to wonder if she was slowly getting used to it. That idea of course, flew out the window when Hidan proposed that he sacrifice her at the end of the month. Two and a half weeks to live seemed very bleak in Hinata's mind. Luckily for her, Tobi was an insanely protective "owner" and refused Hidan's proposal, insisting that she was too precious to sacrifice which aggravated Hidan into throwing chopsticks at the eye-hole in Tobi's mask.

"Pet-chan! They're being cruel to me, their leader!" Tobi sobbed, hugging Hinata's head to his chest and stroking it to comfort himself.

_No_, Hinata thought dully to herself, _I'll never get used to this_.

Although Hinata found that she could "get along" (for lack of a better word) with Itachi, Kisame, Deidara and Tobi, there were still the six other Akatsuki members that she needed to work on. Not that she really wanted to get too close to two particular members as: 1. Hidan would mostly likely sacrifice her at the first opportunity he could get, and 2. Zetsu who hadn't stopped eyeing her like she were something edible would most likely eat her if she willingly approached him. She shuddered at those thoughts every time.

Overall, it had been an exhausting first week at school and Hinata stretched her aching and cramped muscles, hoping to relieve them as she sat in her usual spot on the roof at recess on a Friday morning. She gazed up at the bright azure sky, watching the white clouds drift by and sighed contentedly. She would finally be free of this for two days straight, time for relaxation and recovery from her first stress-filled week of school.

Oh, how she loved the weekend.

...

"H-how did you find out where I l-lived?" Hinata asked, eyes wide as she stood in her pajamas at her front door, a deep blush evident on her face.

It was a Saturday morning, 7 am to be precise and Hinata had only just gotten up to make herself some breakfast when there was a knock on the door. Believing it to probably be a family member such as her cousin Neji, she had naively walked up and answered it, whilst still dressed in her sleeping clothes. As soon as she had opened the door up to the Akatsuki however, her expression was of one that resembled a deer caught in headlights. Deidara and Kisame had burst out laughing at her appearance and Hinata was thankful that she had thought to brush her hair.

"Come on," began Pein, a smirk on his face as if he too were tempted to laugh, "you're seriously going to ask us that question? We're the Akatsuki and Konan knows everything," he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the blue-haired information collector of their group.

Too numb to reply, Hinata held onto the doorframe for support, unsure of what to do or say next besides wishing she could magically disappear.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" Deidara was tempted to roll about on the floor as he laughed uncontrollably. "A love-heart covered pajama! AHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Blushing a million shades darker than usual, Hinata stared down at her fluffy pink slippers, too embarrassed to move or utter a single word except attempt to slam her door shut. It was rude of course, but she had no idea of how to escape the shame besides fainting and she didn't want Deidara or Kisame to die laughing on her account.

A hand stopped the door from closing and Tobi's masked head peered around the door. "Aww, don't worry Pet-chan. Don't listen to those buffoons out there. If you have any concerns, please, leap into my arms and sob to your heart's content!" Tobi proclaimed, throwing the door open and opening his arms wide expectantly to Hinata who was still too numb and ashamed to move.

"Don't be an idiot, Tobi, you sound like a fucking perve!" Hidan said as he walked into the living room, his eyes roaming over the neat house.

One by one, the Akatsuki walked in, looking around the small house, an awkward silence falling over the group and Hinata suddenly wished she had fainted.

Her living room was rather modest and neat, reflecting the rest of her house. A comfortable yet affordable sofa, a bookshelf of loved novels, a small TV, a stereo which Hinata treasured when she was alone and able to dance freely, a telephone handset that hung on the wall and three photo frames, one of a young lady, another of her father and younger sister Hanabi and the other of her two closest childhood friends, Shino and Kiba. Nothing too flashy or pricey. Just a plain house.

"It's... small..." Sasori commented, breaking the silence.

"O-oh, um, yes..." Hinata agreed, feeling the need to explain. "It j-just wouldn't be n-necessary." She gulped and gathered her courage. "W-would y-you all like some t-tea?" she asked nervously.

"Erm..." Tobi began, staring at the small TV and measuring it with his hands, "...sure, why not?"

Relieved that she had something to do and no longer needed to be in their presence, Hinata made her way into the kitchen that was the room next to the living room. She left the door open behind her as she opened up a cupboard to take out the necessary number of cups, in case they asked her for anything.

"What do you mean it wouldn't be necessary?" Itachi asked as he examined the photographs indifferently.

"Oh, I live alone," Hinata replied, more confident now that she didn't have to face them.

The piece of information surprised the Akatsuki members.

"Then how do you make money to support yourself? You're only 15, you couldn't possibly earn enough to make a living," Kakuzu asked, the one member who was more intrigued with money and how it was handled than anyone else in the Akatsuki.

Hinata began to place a bit of tea in each cup, a soft smile on her face. "My father sends me money each month. He actually sends me more than I need so I end up saving most of it up. But now that I'm attending Konoha Gakuen High, I've been using it to pay my school fees," she explained, beginning to pour hot water into each cup.

There was silence from the living room as each member digested this new piece of information and by this time, Hinata had placed all the cups onto a tray and was bringing it into the living room.

"Who's this lady?" Konan inquired about the photograph of the young lady. The blue-haired member was of course a person who disliked not knowing things, this had become apparent to Hinata during the time she had gotten to know each member.

A soft yet sad smile appeared on Hinata's face. "It's my mother."

"Your mother? She's too hot to be that old!" Hidan exclaimed as he peered at the picture on the shelf alongside Konan.

A small laugh escaped Hinata's mouth. "Do you think so?"

"Hell yes, I _know_ so!"

"You're talking about someone's mother here, Hidan," Pein said as he sat down on the sofa, accepting the cup Hinata offered.

"No shit, piss-brain," Hidan retorted, taking a tea cup from the tray Hinata held.

Pein's eyes narrowed. "Don't make me remind you how empty your head is right now by kicking it around a bit."

"Now, now!" Tobi said before his nose disappeared into his tea cup as he drank generously from it. He let out a satisfied "ahh" before continuing. "I strictly prohibit any fighting from occurring in my beloved Pet-chan's house."

Hidan grumbled a few choice swear words into his tea cup and Pein relaxed back onto the sofa.

"So, your parents allow you to live on your own?" Deidara asked as Hinata walked past, heading for the kitchen to put the tray away.

"My f-father sort of encouraged it..." Hinata answered slowly as she walked into the kitchen, placing the tray on the bench before returning to the living room.

Deidara nodded slowly, taking a sip from his cup. "Hn, and what about your mother? Did she agree?"

"My mother's dead."

Deidara swallowed his tea hard and nearly choked and dropped his cup. It was another shocking piece of information for the Akatsuki.

Tobi sniffed audibly, placing his cup down on top of the TV before walking over to Hinata and embracing her (or more like embracing her head), his hand stroking her head in an attempt to console her. "Feel free to weep into my chest, Pet-chan!" His voice shook as if he really were about to bawl.

The rest of the Akatsuki studied Hinata's face as if expecting her to fall apart before them. Instead, a smile lit Hinata's face.

"Don't worry, Tobi-senpai," she said reassuringly, reaching up to pat his arm. "She died when I was young so I don't really remember her... but..." Hinata paused in thought before pulling back a bit from Tobi's hold to look up at him, beaming, "b-but father says I look exactly like her!" _And that makes me happy_, Hinata added silently in her head. That a part of her father looked at her not as a burden but lovingly, like how he might have looked at her mother was something that Hinata was glad about.

As if a thought suddenly struck her, Hinata dashed away to the kitchen. "H-have you all had something f-for breakfast? Aie! I'm such a h-horrible host! I'll f-fix something right away!"

She was preparing to make some rice balls when Hidan entered the kitchen. She turned to him with wide eyes, surprised that he was now standing beside her, observing her cooking.

His eyes narrowed and turned to her. "Don't fucking get any funny ideas."

Even if she had gotten to know him a bit better, it didn't mean she was any less scared or intimidated by him. For all she knew, he had only entered the kitchen with bad intentions-such as sacrificing her then and there. She gulped audibly at that thought, wishing her hands wouldn't tremble as she began to shape some rice into a ball.

"Well, you fucking live on your own, so shit, I wonder, are you able to fucking defend yourself?"

"Eh?" was Hinata's reply as she stared at Hidan. Was that all he wanted? She turned her head to look over her shoulder at the kitchen door to see that all of the Akatsuki where gathered around the opening, watching. Did they see her to be an easy target of a criminal who would break into her house? "U-Uhm..." Her nerves were getting the better of her, so she placed the rice down onto the plate, unable to continue with her hands shaking this much. Long ago, she had decided that she would change for the better. She didn't want people to continue to see her as a frail and easy target. "I-if you must H-Hidan-senpai... a-attack me, but... I-I don't want to h-hurt you..." she said as she walked to the centre of the kitchen, her back facing the senior. With all the Akatsuki watching her carefully she stood still and waited.

Although she had been expecting it, it still surprised her when Hidan's arms wrapped around her neck roughly, his hold threateningly tight, almost as if he intended to close off her air passageway completely. His arms were powerful around her throat, and for a short moment, she struggled to breathe.

"What do you do now?" he asked, never loosening his hold.

Instinctively, as if she were used to such attacks, Hinata grabbed hold of the arms around her throat before pounding her foot hard on the floor, tipping forward as she did so and using her own strength and whatever weight she had to throw her attacker, face-first into the floor.

There were a few sounds of awe from her Akatsuki audience.

Kisame snickered. "You got done in by a girl smaller than you Hidan."

Hidan sat up, rubbing his nose and checking whether it was still intact. "Shit, I did."

"Prepare yourself for another assault, Hinata-chan!" Deidara announced to Hinata's back as he charged forward into the kitchen.

Hinata waited for his approach, ready for whatever way he attacked her; Neji had taught her how to defend herself after all. Yet, she still wasn't expecting Deidara's peculiar way of attacking.

There was warm heavy air being breathed down her neck and Hinata jumped in fright, shivers running down her spine as she intended to get away however, her forearms were caught and she was pulled back, shivering uncontrollably as more warm air was breathed down her neck.

Deidara laughed evilly. "I have you Hinata-chan, hn! I call this my special Stalker Art Attack!" he cried triumphantly.

There were a few mutterings of 'idiot' from the kitchen doorway.

"Deidara, you idiot, that's not art at all," Sasori grimaced, wondering once more how on earth the blonde-head had made it through all their years of art class.

"Nng!" Hinata cried, frantically trying to rip her arms away from Deidara. Although his attack was successful, it was immensely freaky and she couldn't deny that the name suited the attack well. It scared her that a possible attacker in the future could hold her in this same position, breathing sadistically down her neck...

In a sudden moment of intense fear and revulsion, Hinata used her feet to kick against the kitchen bench in front of her and repeated this until she was able to climb up it, wincing yet ignoring the pain that screamed from her forearms as she twisted and seemed to fly above the shocked Deidara, right over his head and landing in a not too comfortable position behind him. In her rash action, she had hit her kitchen light, yet she ignored the glass shards that now lay scattered on the floor, one protruding from a weeping wound in her left leg and was solely focused on her attacker now. The fear had completely overcome her and Hinata brought up her uninjured leg and kicked it with incredible force against her enemy's back, forcing him to relinquish his hold and fall forward onto the kitchen bench with a cry.

Adrenaline pumped in Hinata's veins and there was a wild look in her eyes as she prepared to launch herself for another attack.

She couldn't let anyone get the better of her; she wasn't going to allow someone to take advantage of her weakness.

She was going to tear her enemy apart.

As she jumped forward an arm caught her from around her waist, the swiftest of the Akatsuki group was as usual, the fastest to act. "Stop," his soft voice ordered, pulling her slightly towards him, restraining her movements.

The familiarity of his voice brought Hinata back and she looked up into deep pools of darkness; his eyes were vacant of emotion. What was he thinking? Suddenly, heat rose into her face when she realised how close she was to him. She wriggled about in his grasp, trying to escape yet found his hold tightened with each attempt.

"Shit! She really hit me then!" came Deidara's surprised voice as he pushed himself up off the kitchen bench.

"I would hit you too if you breathed down my neck like that," Pein snorted before turning to the flustered Hinata. "That was an impressive display. There may be no need to sacrifice her yet, Hidan, she could be of use to us, perhaps."

Hinata stiffened and turned her head in Pein's direction, horror written all over her face. She may be a pet and toy to the Akatsuki, but now they were going to use her for something else too? Her life was already doomed to be the next sacrifice for Hidan and her body doomed to be eaten by Zetsu and now _this_?

Zetsu grunted, as if having the same train of thought. "I don't like that idea, I say you just sacrifice her already Hidan," he said, glancing down at Hinata's leg at the blood seeping out of the fresh wound.

"NNNEEVVVEERR!" cried Tobi, jumping in front of Hinata and Itachi and throwing his arms open like a shield. "You must take me first before you take my beloved!" he announced, placing his hands on his chest dramatically.

"IDIOT!" Deidara yelled, throwing a plastic bowl at the Akatsuki leader's head.

Tobi sniffed. "But... I've always wanted to say something like that..." he turned around to Hinata and she could almost see the puppy eyes behind his mask. "Didn't you think I was cool Pet-chan?"

Knowing she should just agree, Hinata nodded mutely in response, bracing herself for the hug attack on her head that she knew would ensue from her agreement. However, as Tobi leaned forward to wrap his arms around her head, he paused and glanced up at Itachi, cocking his head to the side in thought.

"You don't have to hold onto her anymore Itachi, I'm sure she's cooled down now," Tobi said in a strangely quiet voice that surprised Hinata. She had never heard this different tone in his voice and she couldn't quite put a finger and what the tone sounded like.

Itachi remained silent, observing Tobi and never relinquishing his hold on the young Hyuuga. "You must be enjoying yourself, _Madara_," Itachi said in an equally quiet voice and a shiver zipped down Hinata's spine when she recognised the tone in both of the Akatsuki member's voices. It was unmistakable in Itachi's voice, a cold threatening tone, the tone that would frighten Hinata into thinking she would have her head chomped off or that another battle would break out before her. More concerned over the threatening tones in their voices, she almost didn't realise the name that Itachi had called Tobi.

There was silence and Hinata realised that even the Akatsuki members knew something was happening even if the words exchanged between the two before them were too quiet for their ears. The silence was broken when Tobi squatted and studied the wound on Hinata's leg, sobbing in a whiny voice, "Oh, poor Pet-chan! She's hurt so severely! Quick, someone call the hospital! She must be in immense pain!" He hugged Hinata's uninjured leg and made sobbing noises as he pressed his masked face against it. Hinata wanted to blush herself into flames, it was too embarrassing.

"TOBI, YOU FUCKING PERVE!" yelled Hidan, pulling at the leader's collar and attempting to wrench him away, failing as Tobi continued to cling to Hinata's leg, sobbing. "THAT'S FUCKING UNFAIR!"

"Unfair?" Pein repeated, staring at Hidan. "The only pervert here is you then."

"SHUT THE HELL UP! I'M FUCKING PROUD TO BE ONE!"

Deidara palmed his face. "I'm surrounded by idiots," he grumbled before directing his gaze to the Uchiha. "In any case, you have to get that glass out of her leg, clean the wound and wrap up her leg."

"Oh, let me do it!" Zetsu piped up, excited at the prospect of "cleaning" the wound. Hinata wondered if he would bite her leg off instead of cleaning it.

"No, you're not allowed near her!" Tobi cried. "I will defend my beautiful Pet-chan to the end!" he said as he fisted his right hand in determination, allowing Hidan to finally rip him away from Hinata's leg, causing Hinata to shift forward slightly, wincing as pain shot up her leg.

In one fluid motion, Itachi swept her up into his arms and carried her out of the kitchen. "Where is the bathroom?" he asked in a bored tone, glancing about the living room as he walked.

Hinata's cheeks were burning and she feared that someone may mistake it for a fever if she didn't stop. "T-to th-the l-left," she said in a weaker voice than she intended.

Nodding, Itachi turned to the first door to the left and Hinata was surprised to see Kisame had followed them and was opening the bathroom door for them with a grin. "Well, you have quite a wound there Hyuuga," he said, still grinning as if the wound in Hinata's leg were highly amusing.

Noting that the room were too small for more than two people to enter, Itachi glanced over his shoulder at Kisame and the blue-haired senior remained outside, understanding. Itachi lowered the toilet lid over the bowl with his foot, closing off the hole before sitting Hinata on top of the lid and turning to the bathroom drawers, pulling out the first aid kit that he found in the second drawer. He turned back to the red-faced Hyuuga and knelt, lifting her injured leg slightly for examination. Grabbing scissors, he brought it to her pajama pant leg and proceeded to cut it at the knee, Hinata crying out in protest.

"D-don't c-cut i-!"

Itachi shot a glare at Hinata who swallowed the rest of her words and returned his attention to his cutting. "It's in the way," he explained curtly, snipping off the last piece of hanging fabric and cutting it straight down. He carefully pulled the material away, Hinata wincing as the fabric brushed roughly against the shard, rocking it in the wound. He glanced up at Hinata's face, her bottom lip bitten down, and looked back down at the bleeding wound before him, gripping the shard firmly in his hand-yet not firmly enough to cut himself. He studied how deep the shard had gone and noted that it was lodged more deeper into her leg than he originally thought.

Realising his intention, Hinata's eyes widened. "Pl-please... no..." she whimpered, wishing she could shrink away from him. Knowing he wouldn't listen, she scrunched up her face and prepared herself for the pain she knew was coming.

Itachi calmly yanked the shard out of her leg and she doubled over with pain, her hands grabbing his shoulders to prevent herself from falling forward and clutching them tightly, screaming briefly in agony before biting down on her bottom lip to push the rest of the screams back, her lip bleeding from how hard she had bit it. She gasped for air and remained in her bent over position for a few seconds, Itachi, surprisingly, remaining still as he waited for her breathing to return to normal.

"Are you finished?" he asked apathetically, reaching up and grabbing her wrists, pulling her hands away from his shoulders. He studied her exhausted face wordlessly as she began to breathe more easily, his hands still holding her wrists.

She nodded and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing pain and rush of blood down her leg, not wanting to cause the Uchiha irritation. Without warning, she felt him release her wrists and stinging pain in her leg as a cool liquid was dabbed into it. She bit down a groan, knowing the senior was putting on some antiseptic to ensure the wound was clean before wrapping a bandage on it.

"What's happening? What's happening?" called Tobi's unmistakable voice as he struggled to catch a glimpse around the Akatsuki's who had attempted to squeeze into the doorway to watch. "My poor beloved Pet-chan, hang in there!" he wept in the background and Hinata braved a weak smile.

"I-I'm... o-okay," she tried to sound reassuring, but doubted that she sounded anything but unconvincing. "U-Uchiha-s-senpai is being v-very gentle," she lied, though was well aware that the Uchiha was most likely holding back when he had ripped the shard from her wound.

She felt clean fabric encircle her leg as Itachi wrapped the bandage carefully around her wound, his face impassive as ever as he listened to the exchange of words.

Knowing that a show of gratitude was in order—she had been raised to be well-manned after all—, Hinata clasped her hands together and smiled down at him, although his gaze was still lowered and focused on the work at hand. "Thank you." She felt proud that she hadn't stammered when she had said it and that she hadn't looked away when Itachi raised his impassive gaze to her smiling face.

Itachi lowered his gaze once more to the bandage before him, continuing the wrapping of her wound. Finished, he stood up and did something strange by placing his hand on top of her head. There was silence as Hinata stared at him, waiting for him to say something but he simply pulled his hand back and turned away leaving her to wonder what he had wanted to say if it were anything at all.

...

Hinata woke up on the Sunday morning, stretching as she yawned widely. After Itachi had finished wrapping up her wound, he had suggested that it be best that they leave and the Akatsuki had agreed, dragging out a weeping Tobi who vowed he would return to visit his "beloved Pet-chan" later. Thankfully he hadn't, and Hinata had a good night's rest.

Swinging her legs over the edge of her bed, she winced at the slight pain in her leg as she did so but smiled all the same and got out of bed, limping her way to the bathroom. In actuality, Hinata didn't mind living alone most of the time as she could dance around freely without anyone watching and could do other silly things that were normally ill-mannered to do when living with others, such as walk around in her towel after having a shower, or singing as loudly as she could to her favourite songs playing on the radio. Hinata loved the freedom that came with living alone. That, and the fact that she had more privacy. Well, without the Akatsuki that was.

She replaced the toothbrush into the cup on the side of the sink and ran a comb through her hair, humming to herself softly. It was a pleasant sunny day, she could tell from the sunlight that streamed into her bathroom window generously. The tiled bathroom floor had been scrubbed vigourously when the Akatsuki had left in the area where her blood had gushed onto and now smelled of squeaky clean eucalyptus floor cleaner, a scent that Hinata loved.

Hobbling into the kitchen, Hinata opened her fridge to examine what she could eat for breakfast. She sighed dejectedly, noticing that her fridge was unusually bare and that she would have to head to the grocery store to purchase some breakfast and food for the upcoming school week. The fridge snapped shut as she closed it and she hobbled back to her room to change for her outing. She grimaced as she pulled on some pants, the rough material rubbing against her bandage. She would have to make sure to check in at her family doctor's clinic before venturing to the shops.

...

Pushing open the clinic's door, Hinata sighed in relief and allowed it to swing close behind her. It had been awkward walking up to the clinic that was a few streets down from her house. Usually it would be a pleasant walk on a day such as this but her leg had been bothering her as she limped down the pathway to the clinic. She hobbled to the counter, asking to see the Hyuuga doctor who the receptionist said was currently seeing another patient and that she would have to wait and then headed to the closest seat and relaxed into it, stretching out her uninjured leg which she had strained to get there. She could almost close her eyes and relax completely if she didn't feel like she were being watched. Raising her head, she looked about the room and her search ended on dark, charcoal-coloured eyes, seated two chairs away from her. She gulped and looked away, hoping he would stop staring at her and wondered why _he _was here at her family doctor's clinic. But being the well-mannered child she was, Hinata turned back and bowed the upper-half of her body in acknowledgement.

"G-good morning, U-Uchiha-san." She had not been expecting to see Sasuke Uchiha on this bright, sunny Sunday morning, sitting near her, staring coldly.

"Hmph." He looked away from her and stared ahead, cheek on his closed hand in boredom.

Hinata stared at her hands nervously, hating the silence that was always around whenever she saw the moody Uchiha. She could deal with him at school as she only saw him twice in an entire school day but here, outside of school seemed more intimidating and personal and Hinata found herself wishing she had not come to check in to Dr. Hyuuga's at all.

An incoherent sound issued from the Uchiha's throat; it was a toss between a growl and an irritated sigh, Hinata couldn't make up her mind on which, however, it was not at all welcoming. "Why are _you_ here?" he asked roughly, not turning to her as he spoke.

"U-uh... I h-hurt my leg yesterday..." she stared down at the floor near her feet. Why was it so difficult to hold a conversation with him?

Sasuke glanced sideways down at her legs which were hidden under her loose-fitting pants. The kind of clothing one would wear around a house or with places they felt familiar with. He looked away and silence fell upon them again and Sasuke chose to ignore her. _If she has nothing else to say, than neither do I_.

"U-um..." she began, wishing the awkward silence would go away. "Wh-what brings you h-here?"

"My stupid brother has eye problems," Sasuke explained, unconcerned as he flicked off a piece of fluff on his armchair. "We've been here a few times before and Dr. Hyuuga has prescribed him some glasses but he refuses to wear them, the idiot."

"Ah, o-okay," Hinata said as they both settled back into silence. She wondered how Itachi could have such bad eyesight if he could handle it easily from she had seen.

A door clicked open and both Hinata and Sasuke looked up to see Itachi and Dr. Hyuuga exit from the room.

"Hinata!" the Hyuuga called in surprise, quickly making his way over to her. "Are you unwell?" he asked, placing a hand on her forehead to test her temperature.

Hinata shook her head, smiling nervously. "N-no, I just hurt my leg, that's all."

"Sasuke, we're leaving," Itachi's smooth voice commanded and Sasuke stood from his seat, glaring at his older brother.

"Ahh! I-I will see you t-tomorrow at school!" Hinata called as the two Uchiha brothers walked past on their way to the exit. A unison "hmph" was all Hinata received before Sasuke shot another glare at his brother for having responded the same way he had.

"Where're your glasses?" he snapped as Itachi pushed open the clinic door, ignoring him. "You know you're supposed to wear them, idiot!" The clinic door slammed shut behind them.

A clock ticked loudly in the background, resounding easily through out the room because of the silence. "U-uh... Uchiha-senpai... wears glasses...?" Hinata asked, turning to the doctor, not knowing how else to ask for more information on the subject.

...

"What is this?" Itachi asked Hinata pointedly, holding up a bright red tomato in his hand, turning it around to examine.

It was recess time on a Monday morning and Itachi had pulled out the tomato from his bag and had been examining it for the past five minutes.

The chopsticks hovered near Hinata's mouth and she placed it back down into her lunchbox, staring at the red fruit held up by the Uchiha. "It's a tomato," she answered, tilting her head slightly, wondering whether it had been a trick question.

Itachi blinked and continued to stare at the tomato, brows drawn together in thoughtful consideration. "All of the previous week," he began softly, still staring at the red fruit, "I had been taking Sasuke's tomato and mistaking it for an apple. I had wondered why it tasted suspiciously unlike an apple."

Hinata didn't want to laugh at his expense. Knowing the Akatsuki like she did, he very well may kill her as she took in a breath to laugh. She couldn't help but smile though at the mistake the senior before her had made. He really did need his glasses but for some reason was too stubborn to wear them.

"Do you like tomatoes?" he asked unexpectedly, turning to her and holding the tomato out to her, his face blank of emotion as usual.

"Yes, I do!" Hinata answered smilingly, accepting the fruit he offered to her and bringing it to her mouth. She paused and stared at it thoughtfully.

"What is it?"

Hinata continued to smile and using her chopsticks she pushed aside some of her lunch in her lunchbox to make some room before placing the tomato delicately amongst her food. "I'll save it," she said gently, thinking of a particular moody Uchiha before continuing her lunch.

...

End of Chapter 3.

A/N: **Thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews! This is the first time I've updated a story twice in one week! You guys are awesome! :3 **Argh! I'm sorry it was shorter than the last chapter and it was a bit cheap but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway. Next chapter, I'll make sure it's better! D: **Yes, I'm working hard to build up the people's relationships with one another, slow and mature love is the key **(at least in my opinion. Rushed love is unrealistic to me… D:)**! Please hold out a little longer for the fluff! D: **So please leave a review and tell me what you think!


	4. Rumours

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumours at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: I'm so sorry for the updating late! (For this story, longer than a week is late, I think at least...) It's winter in Australia right now and I've got a terrible cold. Not only that but I've been struggling to write lately so hopefully the cold doesn't last for too long... D: And school's being a drag so, meh...

**I received a lot of reviews after chapter three asking why Itachi didn't just wear contacts or have laser eye surgery**. But contacts require a lot of effort to look after them (you can't wear it all day, you have to purchase specific things to keep them clean and ensure that they're moist, you can't sleep with them or else they'll permanently damage your eyesight... Thinking about it sounds like too much work. DD: I wouldn't want any character to suffer the trouble. XD) And laser eye surgery... erm, Itachi doesn't care for those kind of things as he's more concerned over other things... I won't say anymore or else I'll ruin the story...? D:

Onto chapter four!

...

There were only two moments in a day where Hinata exchanged words with Sasuke and she found that they were unusually tense moments. Sasuke's moody disposition made him unpredictable and each time Hinata saw him he would surprise her. The two times she would talk to him would be in the morning when she went to her locker and secondly when she handed him her tomato slices before heading off to lunch. And in each of those times the usual response she would receive from Mr Grumpy Pants Uchiha would be either a grunt (which would suspiciously sound like a "thank you" from the mouth of a very bad ventriloquist) or "Mm" before he proceeded to ignore her. Hinata was used to it by now; at least she was receiving some sort of reply. And by the end of last week, Sasuke had learnt not to try refusing the tomato slices because the entire week, his brother had continued to take (or "mistake") the tomato Sasuke had purchased for himself, always finding the new places where the younger Uchiha would hide them. Whenever that had happened, Sasuke would sulk and be even more moody in the mornings-not that he wasn't already. He had a weak spot for the red fruit that he had extreme difficulty hiding.

That was why, Hinata was staring at him with wide-eyes, stunned. She was sure her mouth was hanging open and knew that it was ill-mannered but couldn't help herself. "E-ehh?"

"I don't want them," Sasuke said bluntly, staring at the opened lunchbox held under his nose.

"Y-you... don't w-want them?"

"That's what I said, or are your ears failing you?" Sasuke asked coolly, leaning back onto the lockers behind him, arms folded over his chest.

It was lunchtime on Tuesday, Hinata's second week of school. She had only barely survived the first week and it seemed like it was going to be another long and arduous week at Konoha Gakuen High. With those thoughts in mind, she promptly shut her mouth and looked down at the lunchbox in her hands, wondering what she was to do now. _I guess, I should just leave now_. She closed the lunchbox with a sigh and turned to leave, wondering why the tomato-loving Uchiha would refuse her tomato slices. Did he think he was above her commoner-prepared food? Did he not like the tomatoes she had brought on Sunday, they were on sale for a rather cheap price...

The questions that buzzed in Hinata's head were creating more stress and she had had enough of that from last week.

"Hinata," Sasuke called, pushing off slightly from the lockers. She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him, a look of confusion on her face as he approached her leisurely. "Were you paying attention in Homeroom?" he asked coolly, folding his arms over his chest as he watched her brows crease in further confusion.

"Eh? Uh-m..." Hinata paused to think. Now that she thought about it, she had been too busy worrying about Itachi's poor eyesight and that he may walk into a wall if he didn't start wearing his glasses soon and she had tuned out entirely during Homeroom. "Uh..."

Sasuke snorted and brushed past her, walking down the school corridor with his hands in his pockets. "You're on clean up duty tomorrow."

"EH? Cl-Clean up duty? Wh-who's my cleaning partner?" she asked, calling after his retreating back.

Sasuke waved a hand at her without turning around and Hinata wondered what he intended by that. She hated when people played charades with her. She always lost miserably.

"Oh yeah," Sasuke paused and looked over his shoulder. "My brother didn't take my tomato today, so I won't need your tomatoes." He looked back ahead and continued walking. "You should go back to the Akatsuki now. Their idiotic leader is probably sulking without you there."

"Y-yes," Hinata said, turning and heading in the opposite direction from him.

...

"MY CUTE PET-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" Tobi sobbed into Pein's arm as he clung to his sleeve.

"Why are you crying on my sleeve?" Pein asked in annoyance.

"Because Kakuzu wouldn't give me a hug!" Tobi whined, continuing to cry into the irritated Akatsuki member's arm.

"Why are you involving me in this? If I remember precisely, you never asked me for such a thing," Kakuzu muttered, glaring at the loud Akatsuki leader.

"Why should I ask for such a thing?" Tobi sniffed. "It should be your natural instinct to embrace your leader with confidence! I shall show you," Tobi said, pulling away from Pein's arm and holding his arms wide open as he leapt at Hidan. "Now Hidan, embrace me with your brimming confidence and console me!"

"FUCK OFF!" Hidan snarled, kicking Tobi in the head.

Hinata gasped from the ladder at the scenario before her. "T-Tobi-senpai! A-are you all right?" she asked, scrambling up the rest of the way onto the roof before rushing to the fallen masked senior.

Suddenly, Tobi bolted upright and seized Hinata by the shoulders making her squeak in fright. "PET-CHAN! Pet-chan... is it you? Or has the kick to my head caused such severe brain damage that I'm hallucinating?"

"U-uh, it's r-really me..."

Tobi let out a heart-wrenching sob before attempting to throw his head into Hinata's chest to sob, however, two pairs of arms grabbed his sleeves, the back of his shirt and even his hair, pulling him back and preventing him from doing so, the limb owners-Deidara and Hidan-glaring murderously at him.

"You fucking pervert!"

"Don't make us knock you out, stupid idiot, hn."

As Tobi received several more death threats, Hinata laughed nervously, not wanting to sit around Tobi for too long in his 'unusual' state and edged away to her usual place on the rooftop, thinking as she went that perhaps the kick to the head really had given him brain damage. She watched as Tobi crawled back to Pein's side, grabbing his arm and weeping into it, complaining about how he was treated so poorly for his noble intentions.

Sasori stared out at the activities occurring below them from his usual position on the ledge of the rooftop. He was deep in thought, deciding what he should do for the major artwork assignment Kurenai had given them that day and it wasn't helping that Deidara kept disrupting his thoughts with pointless suggestions.

"Why don't you just draw a picture of me for your portrait assignment, hn?"

"Why would I do something as idiotic as that? Your face has no remote artistic aesthetics to it so that would have me failing the assignment," Sasori snorted in reply.

"Hey, that's rude!"

"The truth hurts, Deidara," Kisame said with a laugh.

Hinata smiled warmly. Although what she had seen on her arrival was rather alarming, today's lunch was a lot more peaceful than previous days. She couldn't help but smile as she proceeded to use her chopsticks to pick up some rice, bringing it slowly to her mouth.

"Don't move."

She froze, the end of the chopstick near her open mouth and her eyes shifted from it to Sasori who was on one knee before her, a sketchpad and pencil in his hands, squinting at her face as he studied her.

"Uh-"

"I said, don't move, didn't I?"

Hinata sweat-dropped. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to hold her position and whether she refused to admit to it or not, her stomach was giving tiny grumbles, longing for the rice held between the chopsticks, almost brushing her lips.

"Um... I think she's salivating, hn," Deidara commented, pointing at the drool that was trickling out at the corner of Hinata's mouth.

Sasori growled, startling Hinata out of her trance. "I said don't move!" He brushed the saliva off the corner of her mouth with his thumb, making Hinata blush in embarrassment at having been hungry enough to drool. Ignoring her slowly reddening face, Sasori continued to sketch her portrait, glancing up occasionally and erasing parts at other times.

After a few minutes, Hinata could feel her stiff shoulders grow sore and her stomach whining for food and wondered how much longer she would have to sit still. It also wasn't helping that it was a sunny summer's day.

"Your long hair.." Sasori said after a long stretch of silence where Hinata struggled to keep her sore muscles still. "...it's artistically pleasing to draw..." Sasori commented as he continued to sketch her portrait causing her cheeks to flush at the compliment.

"Um... th-thank-"

"I told you not to move."

Hinata immediately fell silent and cried mentally, wondering how much longer she would have to remain in the ridiculous position, her stomach growling more insistently.

"Hold on," Sasori grumbled, directing a glare at Hinata's stomach.

She suppressed a smile at his bizarre actions, knowing that he would probably scold her once more for even moving a fraction. It seemed like forever or far too long in Hinata's mind that she sat with the chopsticks near her mouth and her aching muscles were screaming in protest when Sasori finally relaxed his hand and sat back, looking over his work before finally speaking up, "I'm finished." Admittedly, he had finished quickly, but when asked by Deidara about it, he waved it away saying in an irritated voice that it was simply a sketch and he hated the fact that he was making Hinata wait for him to finish so that she could eat.

"Th-thank you, for being so c-considerate," Hinata said before she finally began to eat, her stomach doing growls of rejoicing.

"Hmph, I hate making people wait," Sasori simply replied gruffly, returning to his usual position on the roof, sketchpad under his arm and Deidara attempting to catch a glimpse of his sketched portrait of Hinata. "We shall do this again some other time," he called over his shoulder as he walked away.

Fumbling her chopsticks, Hinata stared disbelievingly at his retreating back. "A-again? In the exact same position?" her muscles suddenly felt very sore at the thought.

Sasori turned and seated himself, glaring at her. "Obviously, are you not thinking Hyuuga?"

"A-ah..." With nothing else to say, Hinata fell silent and resumed her eating, sobbing inwardly at the fact that she were being forced to be a model for the Akatsuki member's artwork. _It was bad enough being the pet of the Akatsuki, but to model for them too? Kami-sama, they will wear me out for sure!_

…

Hinata couldn't understand why, but for the entire day, it seemed that nearly every girl in the her year and the years above and below her, glared daggers at her which she could feel stab painfully into her wherever she went.

_What have I done Kami-sama?_ she sobbed, racking her brains for anything she might have done to offend such a large number of students. Had she unintentionally said or done something incredibly obscene or offensive in the morning? She twisted her hands together, unable to think of anything that would have gained her so many dirty looks in such a small amount of time. Not knowing what she could've possibly done to deserve said glares, Hinata sighed defeatedly and dragged her feet towards the corridor where her locker stood, turning the corner and noticing Sasuke at his.

Not in the mood to greet the Uchiha, but knowing it would be rude not to, Hinata surprised herself by grunting out a, "Mm," as she passed him, stopping by her locker.

Sasuke turned to her in surprise, raising a quizzical eyebrow before resuming rummaging through his locker, ignoring her. He pulled out his Science book, remembering he had some homework due the next day and closed his locker, sliding the padlock into place and clicking it shut, before pulling at it to ensure it was secure. He unzipped his bag and shoved the exercise book in before slinging it over his shoulder and turning to the Hyuuga, who's lips were pursed whilst she was in deep thought, absent-mindedly drawing out random books from her locker.

"Hinata."

"Hmm?" Hinata turned her light eyes to him.

Pulling the bag onto his other shoulder also, Sasuke smirked at the confused Hyuuga before turning away, beginning to walk down the corridor and calling over his shoulder casually, "Remember that we have clean up duty tomorrow."

Hinata stared at his retreating back. _Right, cleaning duty_, Hinata thought as she turned her attention back to her locker, _I already knew that_. She reached up to pull out another book and froze, her mind finally clicking. She whipped back around, her expression of pure horror. "Cl-clean up du-duty with _you_?" she asked, her body suddenly numb. Strangely, she knew what he was going to say next but still needed clarification, or if she was lucky enough, he would admit that he was simply joking and that she hadn't been stuck with him to clean up the homeroom early tomorrow morning. _Oh Kami-sama, _early _tomorrow morning. Please say I'm not stuck with him in his least favourite time of the day, _Hinata prayed silently, feeling that dizzying wave of nausea wash over her at the thought of being stuck alone in the same room with the moody Uchiha who would most likely decapitate her if he was in a foul morning mood.

"Of course you're stuck with me," Sasuke replied, stopping to glance over his shoulder, smirk still in place. He continued along his way and Hinata swore he was suppressing a laugh as he said, "I'll see you _early_ tomorrow morning then, Hinata."

Hinata had the sudden urge to faint.

...

It was 7:15 in the morning on Wednesday and Hinata cautiously slid open her Homeroom class' door, peeking into it.

"What're you doing?" Sasuke asked as he glared at the small opening from his seat on the teacher's desk causing Hinata to jump in fright. "Get in here."

Hinata gulped and took a deep breath, crying mentally at her misfortune. _Why Kami-sama? Where did Kurenai-sensei get the sad idea of placing me together with him?_ She then recalled what her teacher had said, yesterday afternoon when she had summoned her courage to face her and ask her if she could have one of Sasuke's fan club members do clean up duty on Wednesday in her place.

"_But you get along so well with Itachi, I thought it would be fine to put you with Sasuke since you're in the same class," _Kurenai's poor logic had explained.

_Kami-sama,_ Hinata had thought as she stared at her teacher in horror, _people actually think I get along with the Akatsuki? Do they not realise that I receive death threats from them daily? If I don't go along with what they say, I will surely die! Someone save me!_ She had sobbed mentally, the sound of her life crashing around her reverberating only in her ears.

Sighing at that memory, Hinata slid open the classroom door entirely and walked into the room hesitatingly. _I might as well get to work straight away, it's not like I can make small talk with him anyway_, she thought as she walked towards him cautiously. "U-Uhm... where's the list of the things we're meant to do?" she asked tentatively, knowing that the Uchiha was particularly sensitive at this time of day.

Sasuke sighed, his brows drawn together in annoyance and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the shelf behind the teacher's desk. "The book's up there."

Walking up to the shelf, Hinata reached up to grab the blue book sitting upon it and found that it was just out of her reach. She glanced over at Sasuke who appeared to be ignoring her and brushing dust off of his jacket and she returned her attention to the book, reaching up once more pointlessly. _If only I was just a little taller!_ she thought, biting her lip as her fingertips brushed against the tip of the shelf, missing the book narrowly once again. She pushed herself onto her tip toes and her fingers brushed against the spine of the blue book. _Just a little further..._

Annoyed with her fruitless struggle, Sasuke sighed and walked forward, stopping behind her and reaching up over her head, easily plucking the book from its place on the shelf and holding it out for her. He could tell that she had stiffened in front of him and vaguely wondered why. Because he was standing so close behind her that he could smell the fruity shampoo she had used? At his wondering thoughts, he growled aloud causing the rigid Hinata's shoulders to square as she prepared herself for an attack. Instead, he tapped the book lightly against the back of her head her head, and brushed past her, turning to smirk at her.

"You're really short," he teased, the book still against her head. Whether it be Naruto or anyone else, Sasuke liked to tease people. It was amusing to push people's buttons and see what made them snap.

A blush spread across Hinata's cheeks. "Th-that's n-not tr-true! I-I'm only a little bit sh-shorter than y-you!" she stammered, eyes bright and bottom lip bitten red, her hands clenched in determination.

Sasuke snorted and pulled the book back, waving it mockingly in front of her. "And yet you struggled to get this." The corner of his mouth twitched as if her were tempted to laugh as he watched the blush deepening on her face.

"Th-th-th-that..." she stammered, unable to speak coherently anymore. She fell silent and stared at her shoes, tears of embarrassment at the corner of her eyes. It was frustrating having to talk to the Uchiha, especially when he was in the mood to poke fun at her; it was the last thing she needed on this Wednesday morning.

Noticing her embarrassment, Sasuke sighed in aggravation and scratched the side of his head guessing that there was a point where he could no longer tease her without her become overly upset. He turned and headed to the blackboard, tossing the blue book carelessly onto the teacher's desk as he passed it and grabbed the chalk dusters, walking over to the window and proceeding to bang out the chalk out the window. "We should get to work," he mumbled over the sound of the dusters hitting one another.

"O-okay." Hinata walked to the teacher's desk and grabbed the blue book, flicking it open and scanning the page for their duties for the day. Finding work she had to do, she placed the book back down onto the table and headed to the back of the room, to the cupboard that held the textbooks for different subjects and re-ordered them, finding that it was a mess as students had lazily thrown them in.

After she finished, she turned and walked back to the teacher's desk to see what else she needed to do from the book and found Sasuke placing the dusters back into their original places and a medium sized spot of chalk on his face. She blinked and felt a strange urge to laugh as she stared at the chalk mark on the Uchiha's cheek, unusual on such a serious person's face. She couldn't help but smile, the laugh that she was trying to suppress building up in her chest. Sasuke turned, noticing her staring.

"What?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Turning away quickly, Hinata decided it was best she not laugh at his expense, lest he bit her head off. It was the morning anyway and Hinata was sure he wouldn't hesitate to do so if she got him mad. "Um..." she began, glancing at the chalk on his cheek. "Y-you have... chalk on your face.."

"Where?" he asked, hand instantly moving to his face.

Hinata raised her hand, pointing at his right cheek. "There."

"Here?" he asked, rubbing near his nose and missing the chalk.

Hinata shook her head. "A little to the left-I mean, my left."

Sasuke rubbed the middle of his cheek, missing the chalk once more that was more near his jaw on the side of his face. "There?"

"N-no, you missed again, it's j-just-"

"Oh for goodness sakes!" Sasuke said in exasperation, letting out an aggravated growl and making Hinata flinch. Yes, the Uchiha was in a bad mood and without warning, he grabbed Hinata's wrist and pulled her hand up to touch his cheek, his scowl never leaving his face.

"Wh-what a-are y-you-?" Hinata gasped, blushing furiously and attempting to pull her hand away.

Sasuke made a face. "Your hand is cold," he noted, making Hinata, if possible, blush even further. "Well, you can see the chalk, so rub it off," he ordered simply, never releasing his firm hold on the Hyuuga's wrist.

Eyes widening, Hinata stared at him in horror as if he had just asked her what the size of her assets were. Shaking her head violently in refusal, she continued in futile to pull her hand away. "N-no!" She didn't want to touch him anymore than she was at the moment. It was too big a step for someone of her demure nature to brush her hand boldly against another person's cheek. It was even too embarrassing for her to think about.

The moody Uchiha's eyes narrowed and Hinata worried that he may hurt her if she didn't obey him. "You don't want to do it?" he asked, studying the frightened expression on her face.

Mutely, Hinata shook her head vigourously. _Let me go, please, _she thought desperately in a tense moment of silence.

Sighing wearily, Sasuke released her wrist and scratched his head before turning away, walking towards the classroom door. "I'm going to the bathroom to wash my face then," he mumbled, opening the classroom door and stepping out, sliding it closed behind himself.

Once alone, Hinata heaved a loud sigh of relief and leaned against the wall behind her for support. She was trembling uncontrollably, her heart racing madly and she wondered if he had felt her hand shake against his cheek. She placed a quivering hand over her heart, mentally willing it to calm down and wondered why it was suddenly so unbearably hot in the room. Thinking it was because there were no windows opened, Hinata headed over to the side of the classroom and unlocked one of the windows and slid it open, sighing in satisfaction as a cool breeze blew against her face.

The door to the classroom suddenly slid open and Hinata turned to it in surprise. Had Sasuke already finished washing his face? But she stared at the unrecognisable student at the door, cocking her head to the side. "Er... g-good morning...?" she greeted unsurely, racking her brains as she tried to remember if she had met this long dark-haired student before.

The student smiled at her and an involuntary shiver ran down Hinata's back. The person's smile was not welcoming and in fact, it was downright petrifying. His smile did not reach his golden eyes.

"Why hello there." He tilted his head to the side as he studied her, the smile never leaving his face. "You're the new girl, aren't you?"

_Is that how everyone knows me as? The new girl or the one with the attention-grabbing assets?_ Hinata forced on a smile, not wanting to be rude. "U-Um, yes, that would be me..."

He approached her, his leering making her feel uncomfortable and she had the sudden urge to run out of the classroom, away from this person.

"I am Orochimaru, I suppose that would make me your senpai," he introduced, stepping closer. Hinata felt herself go rigid. "So, you're the Akatsuki's new pet?" he asked, an eerie smile playing on his thin lips, sending a shiver down Hinata's spine.

Wanting to pull away from the intimidating senior's presence, Hinata made to step back and manouevre around him to the classroom door yet he grabbed her forearms, preventing her from doing so, the eerie smile widening on his face.

"Aren't you an adorable little thing?" he cooed in a taunting tone, drawing her closer to examine her face, grinning at her stiff body and wide alarmed eyes that reflected his leering face in fear. He lowered his face closer to hers, the smile never leaving his face as she trembled uncontrollably in his hold, malicious intent glinting in his eyes. He spoke softly, his breath fanning her face, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, "You look so fragile... so... edible..." He moved his mouth slowly down to her ear as he said the last word, sending violent shivers down Hinata's back.

No matter how much Hinata yelled at her body to move and run away as far as she could from him, she felt this paralysing fear which refused to let her move, her limbs unresponsive to her mental cries. _Move. Move!_ her mind screamed, yet her body could not obey, a bead of sweat trickling down her jaw. Her body shook and disregarding her manners, she cursed herself for being so afraid of this person, of the terrifying bloodlust shining in his gold eyes, of the murderous intent lightly coating his words yet undeniably present.

He was going to kill her.

He was going to rip her to shreds with that sadistic smile in place.

"What do you think you're doing, Orochimaru?" came a soft yet threatening voice, snapping Hinata out of her trance and provoking her to turn her eyes that lit up with relief to the dark-haired senior at the open classroom door, who's voice she had instantly recognised. Itachi Uchiha however, was not looking at her but glaring murderously at Orochimaru, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

Orochimaru pulled away from Hinata, releasing her arms as he turned to smirk at Itachi tauntingly. "Oh, I'm just having a little fun, Itachi," he explained breezily, folding his arms over his chest and leaning his shoulder casually against the wall beside him.

"I'm sure you can find something else to amuse yourself with," Itachi said quietly, warning signs ringing in Hinata's ears at his unchanging threatening tone.

Gripping her chin, Orochimaru pulled Hinata's face closer to him, his eyes, lit up with amusement, never leaving the Uchiha's face. "Oh, but she's so much fun to play with," he traced a slender finger along Hinata's trembling cheek. "So small. So fragile." He pulled Hinata close enough to press his cheek against hers, gripping her neck painfully. "I want to break her," he said with a laugh, Hinata's fear overcoming her at his words and she attempted to wrench herself away.

Itachi stepped forward and the atmosphere in the room seemed to change dangerously. "Orochimaru," he began in his dangerously soft voice, stepping towards the two.

Abruptly, the door to the classroom slid open and Rina, from Hinata's year, stared in surprise at the scene before her and froze, her eyes widening as she stared from Orochimaru and Hinata to Itachi, her mind calculating and attempting to decipher what was occurring.

Orochimaru sighed through his smiling lips, and pulled away from Hinata, making his way across the classroom. "What's truly amusing, is that you seem to _care_, Itachi," he said as he stopped beside the silent Uchiha.

Itachi turned his cold gaze to the other dark-haired senior and Hinata wondered if he were going to knock out Orochimaru's front teeth since he smiled so much. Instead, knowing there was a student at the door observing the situation before her, Itachi spoke coolly, dismissing Orochimaru, "You'd do best not to cross paths with me again Orochimaru. As a former member of the Akatsuki, you should be well aware of that."

Snickering, Orochimaru pushed past Rina and walked out of the classroom. A heavy silence blanketed the people in the room and Itachi turned to direct his cold stare at Rina who jumped in fright before apologising and sliding the door closed, her footsteps heard as she quickly ran away from the classroom. Silence fell once again and Hinata lowered her gaze to the floor, suddenly feeling as uncomfortable as she usually felt around Sasuke.

She heard his footsteps, his shoes tapping softly on the classroom floor as he made his way towards her, stopping just in front of her. She lowered her gaze further to her shoes, her head hanging and allowing her hair to fall over her eyes, feeling his eyes burning into the top of her head as if her were glaring at her. Clenching her fists, she braced herself for a scolding she could sense was burning on the tip of his tongue.

"Where's Sasuke?"

"H-huh?" The question took Hinata by surprise and forgetting that she had been trying to avoid his gaze, she looked up at him with wide surprised eyes, noticing that rather than mad he had returned to his usual impassive look.

"Sasuke," Itachi repeated, eyes scanning her face as he studied her expression, "he's meant to be on cleaning duty with you."

"Oh! H-he went to the bathroom to wash his face. He had some ch-chalk on his..." Hinata trailed off as Itachi's eyes narrowed and wondered what she had said to anger him.

However, he did not seem to be looking at her but appeared to be deep in thought, silence falling upon the two once more. He closed his eyes and it seemed as if he were exhausted to Hinata. "Why did you let him get close to you?" his quiet voice asked, his eyes still closed as if he were murmuring in his sleep.

Hinata's eyes widened at the question and she remained silent, staring at the weary expression on Itachi's face. She bit her lip, unsure of what to say next and Itachi opened his eyes slightly, studying her through his dark lashes.

Without warning, loud talking was heard outside of the classroom and Hinata turned to look at the door, an unmistakable voice coming from the other side of it.

"What are you doing eavesdropping at the door?" came Sasuke's gruff and annoyed voice.

"A-AH! Sasuke-kun! Erm... we were just..."

"Whatever, just get out of my way."

Sasuke slid the classroom door open, Sakura, Rina and Ino standing guiltily behind him, having been caught eavesdropping. Hinata stared at them, blinking repeatedly in surprise. Had they been eavesdropping on her and Itachi?

Sasuke stared at the two in surprise before his eyes narrowed in anger at Itachi. He slowly approached the two, glowering at Itachi, his hate-filled gaze never leaving his brother's expressionless face. "Step away from her," he growled and Hinata stared at him in alarm, wondering why he would be concerned over her. "We have cleaning duty to do and we don't need you harrassing us," he explained, Hinata understanding that he simply needed her help to finish cleaning.

"I had no intention of remaining in this room any further now that you've arrive," Itachi replied coolly, brushing passed his brother.

"What does that mean?"

Itachi paused at the classroom door before he stepped out, walking away without another word.

Sasuke 'hmphed' and turned back to Hinata. "Come on, we should finish cleaning."

Hinata obeyed but couldn't help but feel the members of Sasuke's fan club glare daggers at her. She sighed. She was hated for having such large assets _and_ because she had cleaning duty with Sasuke. All circumstances that weren't entirely her fault. _No, not at all my fault_, Hinata's mind cried as students from their Homeroom began to file in at 8:30, all of the girls glaring at her.

...

"Hey," Sasuke started, glancing over his shoulder, "are you fine finishing up here?"

It was nearing lunchtime and Sasuke had explained that he had basketball training to go to (which he hated most of the time as girls constantly came to drool over the basketball team, namely him).

"Yes, we were almost finished cleaning anyway," Hinata replied, wiping the teacher's desk clean of dust.

Sasuke paused, tilting his head slightly as he watched her straighten up and move towards the blackboard, grabbing the duster and cleaning the chalk-written words on it. "Are you sure?"

Hinata turned to him in surprise before nodding her head mutely.

Scratching his head and wondering why he had bothered to ask, Sasuke turned and slid the door closed behind himself and headed down the empty corridor. He kicked the floor as he went, scolding himself mentally for being concerned about whether or not she would be fine on her own. The muscle under his eye twitched. _I mean, what the hell?_ he thought angrily, clenching his jaw.

Despite this, he still glanced over his shoulder at the classroom door he had just closed before letting a hiss of annoyance escape his mouth and hurriedly turning the corner, continuing on his way to the sports locker room.

...

"Good job Sasuke," Gai, the school's sport teacher, said with a grin patting the Uchiha's shoulder before turning to the rest of the exhausted basketball team who felt as if they had been through hell and back with the extreme training Gai insisted on giving them. "All right, that should be all for today! Hit the showers!" he said, still grinning, his tooth sparkling as he gave the team the thumbs up.

The team grumbled on their way to the lockers, each knowing that it was better to shower at home as the basketball's fan girls' actions were usually unpredictable and they could be watched without them knowing.

Sasuke sighed, grabbing his sports towel and wiping the sweat from his brow as he headed to his locker. He noticed one of the fan girls talking to a boy from their team as he sat on the bench near his locker and growled in annoyance. Those girls were everywhere and he wondered angrily why Gai didn't notice them slip into the locker room. He opened his locker roughly and yanked out his school bag, grabbing some his school uniform and beginning to shove it into his bag.

"I've heard rumours," the girl spoke softly, glancing around herself.

Sasuke felt the urge to snort. _Yes, real inconspicuous, no one would think you're gossiping now_, Sasuke thought as he grabbed his school shoes and shoved it into his bag. The girl however, did look strangely familiar. _From my Homeroom? _Sasuke found himself thinking.

"What kind of rumours?" the guy from his team ask, leaning closer as he spoke in an equally quiet voice.

Shaking his head, Sasuke wondered how even guys could bear gossiping; it was something he thought only girls with petty intentions did.

The girl glanced around and ducked her head closer to her friend's ear. "Itachi Uchiha is after that new Hyuuga girl!" the girl said in a hurried whisper.

Sasuke's head twitched up slightly at her words. He quickly began to pack his bag.

"The Hyuuga girl? You mean the one with the big boobs?"

"No, duh! Who else would I be referring to?"

He had heard enough. He slung his bag onto his shoulders and stomped to the the door, making his presence known. Pushing the sports locker door open he closed it roughly, satisfied when it banged closed.

_So..._ Sasuke thought, smirking to himself as he began to walk down the pathway. _Itachi's after the Hyuuga_.

And it seemed that even Sasuke could fall victim to such false rumours.

...

Hinata sneezed into her hands and rubbed the tip of her nose. Was it a cold?

"Someone's talking about you, Hinata-chan, hn," Deidara said as he bit into his odangos.

"EHH? Really?" Hinata cried, eyes widening as she turned to stare at Deidara in surprise.

"I said for you not to move!" Sasori growled, grabbing her chin and turning her face back into the position it was in before she had sneezed.

"Don't hog her for so long Sasori!" Tobi whined. "I want to pet her! I want to pet her!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

Hinata watched as Tobi dodged the kick aimed at his head from Hidan and sobbed mentally. _I wouldn't blame anyone for talking about me. Look at me right now, hated for my assets and for being forced to be around Uchiha-san and also the pet of the Akatsuki!_

"Ah hah! I am too skilled and fast for you, Hidan! You cannot kick m-" Tobi received a kick to the face.

"You fucking moron! No wonder people always get pissed at you!"

Tobi cried, rubbing his face. "Y-you're so cr-cruel, Hidan! When d-did you change...? When did you become... so heartless?" Tobi sobbed, jumping at Hidan with his arms opened wide, with the intention of embracing the foul-mouthed Akatsuki.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? GET LOST!"

"Can you guys shut up?" Deidara yelled as a vein of annoyance popped out on his forehead, throwing a can of soft drink at Tobi's head.

Hinata sighed (and was scolded by Sasori once more for moving as he drew out her portrait). Another noisy lunchtime.

...

End of Chapter 4.

A/N: Erm... erm... (shifty eyes) How terrible! I'm sorry that it was so incredibly long but hopefully you liked it...? D: Sorry if this chapter was so long and maybe a little rushed (and serious DD: ), I was trying to link all the scenes I had previously written and wanted to end on Sasuke hearing the rumour and it ended up this long... DD: (Yes, I write a bunch of scenes and link them together when writing chapters for this story... XD) **Thanks for all the awesome reviews for the last chapter!** Leave a review-the plot is thickening! :D


	5. The Wager

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumours at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: How horrible. (curse you Mac for being set to American spelling! I shake my Aussie fist at you! ...sadly, I'm not as skilled on a Mac as I am with a PC so I don't know how to change the setting on this... XD) Oh no! I've used up my Author's Note space already? DD:

Sorry that this was late once again... D:

By the way... I badly needed inspiration to write this chapter... and somehow, I ended up reading some SasuHina smut... O.o;; Do. Not. Ask. XD (They were disturbing and I found hardly any inspiration... XD) Finally... I found inspiration in the full MP3 version of Broken Youth - Nico Touches the Walls. Beautiful song! :3 I shall apologise beforehand for all the references to smut. XD

Onto chapter five!

...

Sasuke Uchiha was not interested in girls. They were annoying things that had unbearably fickle hearts who were only really interested in you for your good looks and talents. If you had neither of these, you were most likely ignored. It was one of the many reasons why Sasuke Uchiha did not like girls. That and the fact that he was constantly chased after by them every day of his miserable school life. And so, he had figured that every girl would act the same way towards him and in his mind, Hinata Hyuuga was no exception.

"G-good morning, Uchiha-san," stammered Hinata as she passed on her way to her locker.

It was Thursday morning. The day after Sasuke had discovered that his brother actually did hold interest in girls and in a particular one that stood beside him, picking through the books in her locker. He couldn't help but study her as she did so, wondering what it was about her that interested the older Uchiha.

"Mm." Sasuke gave his usual reply before turning back to the contents of his locker.

There was only one thing useful about girls in his opinion or at least something that interested him which was that they were a source of entertainment. Toys to be played with simply. Besides that, he wasn't interested in any of them.

From his past experiences with the female species, Sasuke Uchiha did not have a very good impression of them.

"Hinata," he started, withdrawing his English poetry textbook from his locker. "What do you think of my brother?" It was best to clear that subject and see whether or not she held the same interest in the older Uchiha as he probably did in her.

At his question, Hinata turned to him bewilderment, eyes wide and wondering why he would ask such a question yet the Uchiha was not looking at her and instead, continued to search through his locker for the books for his first two periods. Hinata turned back to her locker and stared into it, wondering what she should say next knowing full well that Sasuke hated his brother for some reason and decided to choose her words carefully. "W-well... I don't really... understand him..." she answered truthfully after thought. "B-but, it's strange..." she trailed off as she reached into her locker to pull out her English exercise book.

Having caught his attention, Sasuke turned to Hinata expectantly. "What's strange?" he pressed, interested in what she had to add.

Glancing down at her shoes, Hinata shook her head mutely. "It's nothing." _I was just about to say that sometimes they're similar but because he hates his brother so much he'd probably take it as an insult!_ "W-well, I'm sorry but I'm sure the A-Akatsuki are waiting s-so..." Hinata turned and bowed to Sasuke. "I'll see you later, Uchiha-san."

And with that, she turned and ran down the corridor, leaving Sasuke Uchiha on his own to stare after her.

"Well," Sasuke said aloud to no one in particular, leaning back onto his locker. "What can I do about this situation?" He paused and thought. "Perhaps I should do something too... perhaps I can make this interesting for me," he said with a smirk and pushed off of the locker before making his way towards Homeroom.

...

"Pet-chhhhaaannn!"

Hinata smiled, tilting her head to the side as she greeted the Akatsuki leader. "Good morning, Tobi-senpai."

Tobi attacked her head, embracing it viciously. "Ahhh! That smile that warms the man's soul! How I have longed to see it all morning!" He sighed in utter satisfaction, as if his life were now complete.

"Get off of her, your vulgar germs may rub off on her, hn," Deidara said, poking the Akatsuki leader's side and causing him to jump.

"Smut is bad children! It's bad!" Tobi suddenly cried, covering Hinata's ears in an act of attempting to defend her from a subject he had brought up himself.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Hidan yelled, annoyed that the Akatsuki leader was suddenly changing the subject. He could not make head nor tale of why the masked senior would bring such an inappropriate subject into discussion, but only a few words needed to register in his mind. "Fucking pervert! Let go of her if you're going to be fucking thinking of smut! You're fucking sick, do you know that?" he yelled, wrenching Hinata away from the leader by her hair, nearly ripping a few roots from her scalp.

Tears stung the corners of Hinata's eyes as she moved away from Hidan who had released her hair, thankfully. She turned to the seniors, rubbing her aching head and bit her lip in thought before speaking. "Wh-what's smut?" she asked, eyes wide with innocence.

Deidara shot a glare at Tobi before placing what he thought to be a reassuring hand on Hinata's shoulder. "It's nothing that you should concern yourself with, Hinata-chan. Our leader was just being a stupid idiot once again, hn."

"I was _not_ being an idiot! I was simply trying to defend my beloved Pet-chan's mind from that of ravaging fiends!" Tobi declared in determination, appearing as if his intentions had indeed been noble rather than disturbing.

"Ravaging fiends?" Sasori repeated with a raised brow. "That's revolting and rather disturbing. I wouldn't be surprised if you were referring to yourself in fact."

"How cruel of you Sasori!" sobbed Tobi, his masked face pressed into his hands as he wept. "_I_? A ravaging fiend? It's unthinkable! I would never harm an innocent maiden let alone a fly!"

"Indeed," Pein said dryly, adjusting his shirt collar in disinterest. "Look, we don't have time for your pointless talk, so let's just go to Homeroom already."

"B-but-! My Pet-chan!" Tobi spluttered as both Pein and Konan seized his arms.

"Just go already, you're giving us a headache, hn!" Deidara pinched the bridge of his nose, a crease between his brows.

Tobi sobbed all the way as he was dragged away to Homeroom by Pein and Konan who ignored his continuous cries for "his Pet-chan" reaching out to a rather alarmed Hinata who had been questioning the sanity of nearly ever student she encountered at Konoha Gakuen High.

She felt somewhat relieved as Sasori and Deidara began to walk together with her to Homeroom, though slightly guilty that she felt a bit glad to be away from Tobi who she had recently begun to wonder whether or not he suffered from brain damage also. Deidara's voice broke through her train of thoughts.

"So, your leg has gotten better since the wound, Hinata-chan?" he asked, his eyes studying the movement of her injured leg, the wrapped bandages hidden underneath the knee-high socks that Hinata wore.

"O-oh yes, it's healing a lot faster than my doctor expected which is good because it hardly hurts anymore now," she replied with a bright smile, glad to have something comfortable to talk about.

"You're no longer limping as obviously," Sasori simply noted, staring ahead of himself.

"Y-yes."

As she said this, they reached their Homeroom, which had been relatively close to where they had been and as Hinata made her way into the classroom, she wondered naively to herself what the day may hold in store for her.

In fact, today was the beginning of what she would later look back on as what would lead to many horrors and troubles.

...

Sasuke Uchiha watched her from across the room as she seated herself amongst the Akatsuki, now accustomed to the seating arrangement. He studied her rather innocent expression as she looked at each of the Akatsuki as they spoke. Her face was free of malice, ill intent, anger or hate; she was simply looking at them as they spoke. Her reaction to each of them was the same, even as Itachi spoke softly, she would turn and address him with the same look in her eyes. The same kind of respectful look someone would give to another if they hardly knew them and yet were willing to continue learning about the person. He recognised it to be a look she often gave him upon greeting him in the morning at her locker as she smiled.

Spinning the pen between his index and middle finger, Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted as the classroom door slid open and the class quietened down.

Kurenai and, surprisingly, Kakashi stepped into the room and the masked teacher waved politely to the students, appearing as if he were smiling underneath his mask.

"Class, this is, as I'm sure you may already know, Kakashi and he shall be talking to us about a task that has been set for you," Kurenai explained, allowing a short ripple of murmur to go through the Homeroom before placing a hand up to signal for silence. Once that was achieved, she turned and nodded to Kakashi who cleared his throat, taking the cue to speak.

"As I am sure you are all aware of the annual Fundraising events that are coming up soon and thus, our Principal Tsunade has decided that it'd be best if the play for this year were original," his mellow-like voice explained.

Excited murmuring came from the Homeroom from the news.

Hinata simply stared at the masked teacher, wondering what on earth he meant. She was not aware that the school held an annual fundraising event. Was the school unable to supply itself with enough money for particular things and as a result, forced students to participate in activities that would fundraise enough money for said previously unreachable items?

"So everyone, work hard and write the best story possible. The best story will be used for the Designated Class' fundraising play," explained Kakashi. There were a series of groans from all around the classroom and Kakashi ignored them as he continued, supposedly smiling under his mask. "Don't worry. All homerooms are participating in this creative writing process."

"My question is, why do we have to write the story for the stupid Designated Class, hn?" Deidara asked in annoyance. "Not that I meant you or anything Hinata-chan, but this is rather ridiculous of the Principal, loading more pointless tasks onto us."

Hinata was too shocked to reply. Her class was going to act out whatever was the best story out of all the stories that would be submitted from each student in every Homeroom-practically the entire school was taking part in deciding the fate of her class. Whatever story was to be chosen, it was the students of the Designated Class who would be acting it out and bringing it to life. It almost seemed too overwhelming as Hinata thought about it. She had never acted in a play before and prayed that she just be the one operating the curtains as no one would see her and she would be out of the way, not ruining the performance of her classmates.

"Well then," Kakashi began, supposedly still smiling under his mask, "I will be taking my leave now as that's all I wanted to say. Oh, and," he paused at the doorway as he suddenly remembered something. "The stories are to be handed in by the end of the day as to quickly get through the selection process. All stories will be collected by your Period Five teacher. Thank you for your Homeroom's time, Kurenai," Kakashi said, with a nod in her direction before leaving.

Sasuke sighed and leaned back in his chair, grimacing. So, his class was going to have to perform an original play to fundraise money for the school. _Cheap bastards_, Sasuke thought in irritation. He pushed the thought of the play to the back of his mind, dismissing it temporarily as he had more important issues to think about rather than a play that would end up disastrous in his opinion. Said important thing concerned the certain girl that he was currently observing. How was he to take Itachi's "situation" and change it to his advantage? And then, it suddenly struck him like a bolt of inspiration and he slowly smirked. Now all he needed was to get the Hyuuga alone. _Screw the play!_ he thought as he focused on the details of his plan. _This, is far more important_._.._

_..._

It was another basketball training session and as usual, Gai was being merciless to the team, not realising the amount of suffering he was forcing them through.

"Come on! Put your backs into it!" Gai cheered as with excitement he joined in on the training exercises.

"I wish... he wasn't so... easily excitable..." gasped Kankuro as the team ran what seemed to them to be their one-hundredth lap around the basketball court alongside their over enthusiastic sport teacher.

"All right! Hit the shower boys, good job!" cheered Gai, clapping a hand on each of the basketball boys' shoulders as they stumbled past him, grumbling curses under their breath.

It was then that Sasuke noticed the two Akatsuki conversing at the side of the locker room entry and his blood boiled as he recognised the older Uchiha who was speaking emotionlessly with Deidara, the blonde obviously irritated with having to engage himself in a conversation with the genius.

"Can we leave from here? Obviously our stupid leader had no idea what he was talking about. There's nothing to see around here and no information to gather; another pointless goose chase that Tobi has sent us on," came Deidara's annoyed voice as he made a face.

"Our duty is to obey commands and whether we agree with them or not..." The Uchiha trailed off, sensing a familiar presence nearby and his dark eyes turned to meet those of his brother's.

"Hah," began Sasuke, his eyes narrowing. "It's funny," he said though his expression displayed no humour. "I've been wanting to talk to you all day today." He used his towel to wipe some sweat from his brow as he approached the two Akatsuki members. "So, it's funny to see you here," his words implied something, as if the older Uchiha had intentionally chosen to stand outside of the locker room to discuss their mission objectives with Deidara.

"Ugh, another Uchiha," Deidara said, rolling his eyes at the sight of Sasuke. "It's difficult enough to deal with one in my opinion yet there has to be more of you, hn."

"Shut up, I have no business with you," Sasuke sneered, turning his attention back to his brother and ignoring the death glares Deidara directed towards him. "I have a proposition for you, Itachi," he began casually, dabbing the towel against his face, his voice slightly muffled.

Itachi calmly turned away from his brother. "I have no time for idle chat. Deidara-san, we shall take our leave." Both he and Deidara began to walk away down the pathway.

Sasuke's head snapped up in anger and he flung his towel over his shoulder to hang there and stalked towards the two departing Akatsuki. "Where's Hinata?" he suddenly asked, knowing that he should just get straight to the point.

The Akatsuki's paused in step and both looked over their shoulder at him, Deidara raising a questioning eyebrow and Itachi as expressionless as ever.

"What do you mean by that, Sasuke, hn?"

"I wasn't talking to you, was I?" Sasuke dismissed Deidara, winning himself some more death glares as he turned to address his brother. "I don't get it Itachi," Sasuke said, wiping his damp brow. "What do you see in that Hyuuga girl? What interests you about her?"

Itachi stared silently at his brother. "Why do you ask such questions? I have no interest in her," he stated, his voice and expression giving away nothing.

"Like hell you don't!" shouted Sasuke, pointing at his brother accusingly. "You just don't want to admit that you are interested in her."

"My, my," Deidara said with a shrug of his shoulders and a defeated sigh. "And here I thought you Uchihas were meant to be geniuses. You're an idiot in my opinion Sasuke, hn."

"This doesn't concern you, Deidara!" Sasuke spat, annoyed with the blonde-haired Akatsuki's presence. "My brother is indeed interested in the Hyuuga, so I wouldn't mind challenging him." He turned to his brother with a smirk, his eyes narrowed. "What do you say, Itachi?"

"A challenge?" Itachi repeated and if it were possible, in mild surprise.

"Yes. A challenge. I'll win her affections before you."

Itachi stared once more at his brother before turning away, muttering, "Foolish little brother. That is a statement, not a challenge." He paused in step. "Are you meaning to say that you are willing to break her, simply to bother me?"

Sasuke's smirk, if possible, widened. "Not only that, but for once I _will_ defeat you."

There was silence before Itachi continued to walk away, choosing to say nothing else to the younger Uchiha.

"Hah, I know he's interested in her," Sasuke said, smirk still in place. "And I can't wait to see his face when she falls head over heels for me." Sasuke was confident of himself. Annoying and torturous as it had been at the time, Sasuke knew for a fact that there was no girl in the school who had not chased after him and he did not expect Hinata Hyuuga to be any different. He was convinced that he already had this challenge won which was the reason why he had wanted to quickly suggest it to his brother. It was about time that he finally got under his brother's skin and succeeded in defeating him in something that he was sure to annoyed over.

"Ahh, cocky, aren't we?"

Sasuke turned to see Tobi, leaning casually against the wall, having watched the entire exchange of words and challenge. He sneered at the appearance of the Akatsuki leader and turned away, making his way down the pathway away from the two Akatsuki. "I don't have time to talk to you idiots, I have to be decent for Period Five." He glanced over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps to see Tobi and Deidara following after him. "It's lunchtime, so why don't you go and do whatever it is your group does on that school roof," he asked coolly before turning away and deciding to completely disregard their presence from then on. He was not interested in any of them and couldn't care less if they decided to follow him around for a bit. He had more pressing matters to deal with and a certain Hyuuga to win over.

He smirked to himself as he thought. After all, from all the girls that had chased after him, Sasuke had learnt many things about the female species and didn't think this challenge would be too difficult.

"Don't you want to say anything to him?" Deidara asked in uncharacteristically hushed tones. He frowned. "And why am I whispering to you this when we're walking directly behind Sasuke?"

Deidara could almost feel Tobi's beaming smile in his direction and sighed as Tobi patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. "Never fear Deidara! My Pet-chan is too precious to be broken!" he announced confidently, placing his hands on the places where his cheeks would be on the mask. Deidara had a sick feeling that he was pretending to blush underneath the mask. "Oh, my beloved Pet-chan... how I adore thee..."

"You know... sometimes I wonder why they just don't lock you up or something, hn..."

Tobi suddenly sneezed and rubbed the place on his mask where the end of his nose should be, wondering whether someone was talking about him.

_Why are they still following me_? Sasuke pondered in annoyance, walking briskly so as to lose them.

...

Hinata blinked and looked around the Akatsuki group as she scrambled onto the building, thankful that she had been able to climb the ladder onto the roof safely for the past week and fews days. "Where's Tobi-senpai and Deidara-senpai?" she asked, cocking her head to the side as she drew out her lunch box, preparing to eat.

Shrugging indifferently, Kisame leaned back onto the wall behind him, usual grin in place. "So Hinata... are you handing in your story?" he asked, interested in what type of story the Hyuuga would've written.

Eyes widening, Hinata lowered her gaze to her lap, her fingers automatically touching her lips in a nervous motion that she had developed long ago in her youth. "U-um... I-I don't th-think I sh-should..." she mumbled, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Why not?" Kisame asked, continuing to grin. Hinata continued to look away and Kisame took this as a cue to keep talking rather than press her for details. "I wrote a rather interesting story."

"Whoop-de-fucking-doo, so did I," Hidan said unenthusiastically, rolling his eyes.

"Well, let's hear your story then," Kisame said in amusement, still leaning against the wall behind him as he folded his arms over his chest, waiting.

"Yeah? Well prepare to be fucking amazed!" Hidan cried, whipping out a handful of A4 paper sheets.

"That's a lot of unnecessary pages," Kakuzu muttered as he sipped his drink from his bottle.

"Shut the hell up!" Hidan snapped before he began to read from his pieces of paper. "There once was a powerful as hell Akatsuki member named Hidan."

"Oh here we go," Sasori snorted, rolling his eyes.

A vein popped out on Hidan's forehead, yet he chose to ignore the comment, wanting to continue reading his rather disturbing story aloud that appeared only to be boasting in the form of a poorly written narrative. Hinata stared at him as he continued reading with wide eyes, feeling as if her brain had been soiled with the violence and suggestive themes within his story. By this time, he was on the second page and refused to stop reading, even when Kakuzu had thrown his bottle at him in an attempt to silence him. Hidan easily side-stepped it and continued his reading. "_'Oh no! Do not sacrifice me!'_ cried the young weak and pathetic girl. _'I'm too young to fucking die!'_ But it was too fucking late. The powerful as hell Akatsuki member had already sliced through her-"

"AIIEE! HOW HORRIBLE!" cried Tobi, clamping his hands over Hinata's eyes. "Don't read your gruesomely violent story around Pet-chan! You'll traumatise her!"

"Idiot... you're supposed to be covering her ears, not her eyes, hn," Deidara sighed, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

Kisame looked up at the two with a grin. "Hey, when did you guys get here?"

"Just now. We were unfortunately caught up talking to the younger Uchiha idiot," Deidara explained, stretching his arms widely as he took a seat in his usual spot.

Eyes still covered by Tobi, Hinata turned her head in Deidara's direction and if she could see, she would've had wide eyes as she stared at the blonde. "E-eh? Uchiha-san?" she asked, attempting to pry off Tobi's fingers so as to be able to see the blonde Akatsuki member.

Deidara poked his pinky into his ear and twisted it around a bit, yawning tiredly as he did so. "Yeah, he was talking about..." Deidara trailed off, shooting a glance in Hinata's direction causing her to tilt her head to the side in wonder as Deidara fell silent and had begun to eat his lunch in that manner.

"Deidara-senpai?" Hinata pulled away from Tobi, wanting to know what the blonde-haired Akatsuki member had been about to say. "Wh-"

"Peeeettt-cccchhhaaannn!" Tobi embraced her head from behind cheerily. "I would be most delighted if you listened to my story before I hand it in!"

Hinata sweat dropped from the pressure around her head. "U-um... s-sure... I don't mind..." she mumbled, not having any other choice as she was trapped in his hold.

"Here you go!" Tobi said brightly, drawing out a sheet of paper with his messy scrawl on it.

Before he could hand it to Hinata however, Hidan had seized it, snatching the paper from him, his eyes skimming over the page. His brow twitched and he glared up murderously at the Akatsuki leader. "You fucking pervert! You were about to give her this smut crap to read!"

Tobi cocked his head to the side. "Smut? Oh, that's the wrong thing. That's just something I wrote in Science for fun," he explained breezily, waving his hand as if to dismiss the disturbance he had caused with this revelation.

Suddenly on his feet with a murderous glint in his eyes, Deidara wrenched Hinata away from Tobi's grasp and knocked the masked Akatsuki into the ground before proceeding to kick him repeatedly. "You _sick_ bastard!"

"NNNNOOOOO! I would never have given it to Pet-chan to read in the first place! She is my blooming wallflower that I refuse to harm!" cried Tobi, using his arms to shield himself from Deidara's attacks.

"I think the point is the fact that you wrote it rather than you were "accidentally" handing it to Hinata to read," Konan said simply, not bothering to look up from her lunch as she ate.

It seemed that everytime Tobi got into his "unusual" mood (which was most of the time anyway) the best Hinata could do was laugh nervously before inching away to continue eating her lunch. As she shifted away this time, she noticed Itachi sitting near the edge of the building, quietly looking over it at the students below, observing the soccer players running about on the field, the hot-blooded elite soccer player, Rock Lee, amongst them, Hinata noticed. She walked up near to where he sat and looked out at the students as well. Even with the raucous in the background, Hinata felt strangely calmed and peaceful in the older Uchiha's presence; the atmosphere around him at the moment seemed rather soothing to the Hyuuga, a nice change from the previous murderous atmosphere she was sitting in when Tobi had arrived with his story that for some reason he was being kicked for.

"Uchiha-senpai."

"Hmm?"

"Do you like soccer? Y-you seem to feel peaceful watching the players below," Hinata said with a genuine smile, curious as to why the atmosphere around the Akatsuki member felt the way it did.

Itachi was silent for a moment. "They're playing soccer? Ahh, that is why there was a strange blur at their feet."

_Does he mean the soccer ball? _Hinata thought as she sweat dropped. It seemed that the older Uchiha's eyesight was as bad as ever and she felt that if she had any opportunity to question his stubborn refusal to wear his glasses, she thought that now was the most appropriate time to. "U-Uchiha-senpai."

"Hmm?"

Hinata paused briefly from hesitation. "Wh-why don't you wear y-your glasses?" she asked, looking away and hoping he would not feel as if she were prying into what he considered personal.

There was a pause where Hinata fidgeted nervously before Itachi finally spoke up, his eyes never turning to address her. "Why does it concern you?" he asked in his velvet smooth voice.

"E-eh? U-um... w-well..." Hinata stammered, glancing about herself nervously. She no longer felt calm and rather felt as if she were being accused of a crime she had not intended to commit. She chewed on her bottom lip out of habit to calm herself. "W-well, it's n-not good for you t-to walk about w-with bad eyesight like yours. Y-you could really hurt yourself o-or someone else!" Hinata exclaimed, her eyes wide in earnest concern.

Itachi turned to look at her honest and serious face. The corner of his mouth twitched before he turned away once more, his face blank and smooth once more. "It's troublesome to wear glasses," he explained frankly.

And Itachi thought of how troublesome it was for rumours to be circulating the school about a rather serious Uchiha senior and the certain girl that stood gawking beside him, oblivious to it all.

"Y-you think it's tr-troublesome to wear your glasses?" she gasped, continuing to stare at him in surprise.

Yes, troublesome and oblivious, indeed.

...

"Who chose this story?" Neji grumbled as he stared at the script he had been given when he had arrived at school early on the Friday morning. His eyebrow twitched as he read over the lines of the actors, wondering who in their right mind would choose such a cliché and rather poorly written plot.

Glasses sparkling as he pushed it back up on his nose, Gaara smirked, nodding his head in approval at the story held in the student council president's hands. "I chose it myself," he admitted, smirk never leaving his face as if he believed his choice for the Designated Class' play to be suitable.

Neji's brow twitched once more, his mouth hardening into a straight line. "I don't like it," he said, tossing it unceremoniously over his shoulder.

"You have no choice, Neji!" said a loud and familiar voice as someone placed a heavy hand on Neji's shoulder.

Eyes narrowing in annoyance, Neji didn't bother to turn around and confirm who stood behind him. "What do you mean by that, Gai-sensei?" he asked, the muscle underneath his eye twitching at the thought of his class have to act out the story he had just been reading.

Giving his trademark sparkling smile and thumbs up, Gai answered as he grinned, "The Principal has given her approval of that story being used as the play! She says it shall display the true talent of the Designated Class!"

Resisting the urge to punch something (the teacher's sparkling teeth seemed rather appealing in his punching choice), Neji gritted his teeth and retrieved the tossed story sheets from the ground, dusting it off. "Fine, we'll act this ridiculous play." He looked over his shoulder at Gai, still scowling. "But I shall be handing out a copy of the story to each of the class members to see what they think of it." And with that, the student council president moodily walked down the corridor with the story tucked under his arm carelessly, muttering darkly about how much of a fool his class would appear as if they were to act out said play and cursing whoever had written the overly romantic, cliché storyline.

...

Kisame sneezed loudly.

"I think someone's talking about you, Kiissaammmee," Tobi sang cheerfully as they walked to his locker.

Kisame rubbed his nose thoughtfully, grinning. "Hmm, I wonder why?"

...

End of chapter 5.

A/N: WAH! So short! Apologies if there were any grammar mistakes etc. And sorry for the poor writing, I really lacked inspiration and wanted to get this chapter up because I knew if I didn't finish it, I probably wouldn't for another month or so... D: **Thanks for the support and the lovely reviews!** Please continue to send them in and constructive criticism is welcome! :D


	6. The Minor Role

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumours at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: For some reason, I feel somewhat nervous writing up this chapter... D: Additionally, I pushed myself to finish this in time... Anyway... here we go with another installment of RaA! (AHAHAHAH! I just wanted to say that because it sounds amusing! XD) By request of **codegal** (my Gaara obsessed sister... XD), I've added a little more Gaara but as a consequence, this chapter's been lengthened past the usual amount of words I use... so please endure the length, sorry. D:

Onto chapter six! :D

...

It was early Friday morning and yet Sasuke had woken without the "aid" of his older brother. He dragged himself out of bed, having nothing else to do and headed for the bathroom, turning on the tap and watching the water gush out of it. Sasuke dunked his head under the rushing water, staring down at the clear liquid through wet lashes, swirling as it ran down the drain in the sink.

He had to admit it to himself, that whenever his brother was around, he became irrational, instantly acting only with the aim to destroy his brother; rushing ahead without thinking of the consequences just like the water that poured heavy and fast against his head. Sometimes, Sasuke would regret the way he acted around others in those situations. Did they think badly of him? Did they see him as childish, pathetic or stupid?

He felt around for the tap handle and found it, turning the water off before straightening up and glaring at his reflection. The face he hated glared back at him, the same face that others revered as perfection. It was disgusting.

Snatching up his towel that hung on the bathroom rail, Sasuke pulled it up to his face, intending to dry it slowly. It was then that he felt the wet sticky substance being rubbed into his face and pulled the towel away to see what it was.

Needless to say, Itachi was already up, the corner of his mouth twitched up as he passed the bathroom on the way to the kitchen to prepare his lunch, the other corner of his mouth twitching up at the sound of Sasuke's yelling and cursing.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Sasuke's voice echoed, bouncing off the bathroom tiled walls and floors.

Itachi began to scoop some porridge into his bowl for breakfast, a very small smile on his face. "They call it breakfast," he said aloud to no one but the raven-haired Uchiha, stomping about in the bathroom, who could not hear him anyway.

...

It was a Friday morning and Hinata found herself racing to her school, crying hysterically about how late she was. She had slept in and had woken up, distressed at the digits 8:10 flashing on her alarm clock and ran madly to school, however, the bell for Homeroom had not sounded yet. She was relieved by this fact as she walked into her Homeroom, sighing thankfully as she headed over to her usual seat amongst the Akatsuki. It was a bad start, yet she was sure she'd be able to overcome such a "small" detail that she had previously been stressing over.

She did not however, notice the strange tension in the air when the bell sounded later for the beginning of classes and she stepped into her classroom, greeting the familiar faces of her Designated Class. An excited buzzing resounded throughout the room and Hinata noticed it was because of all the murmuring occurring from around her as she took her usual seat beside Sakura. She leaned over to her bubblegum-pink-haired classmate, whispering, "What's all the commotion about, Sakura-san?" she asked, her eyes roaming over the faces of her classmates as they continued to chat excitedly, ignoring the teacher, Kurenai as she walked in.

Sakura leaned back to her. "The fundraising play that our class will be acting out has already been decided and during this class time they've allowed Gaara-kun and Neji-kun to discuss with us the issues concerning the play, such as, who will be assigned which roles and etcetera," she explained in hushed tones as Kurenai raised her hand for silence.

"May I please have your attention. I'm sure that the news has already reached you as things around this school circulate fast, so I am well aware that you are all very excited, but please remain silent unless prompted to speak by your class or student council president, Gaara and Neji who will be taking this lesson time to inform you of the play that has been selected for you to act and will take care of all the issues that are related to the fundraising event. So please come up, Neji, Gaara," Kurenai said quickly, nodding to both presidents before taking her chair and placing it in the corner of the room, where she sat to observe the class discussion.

_Neji-nii-san!_ Hinata thought, her attention instantly captured at the sight of her cousin.

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei," Neji said in acknowledgement before turning to the class, his face grim and serious. "As Kurenai-sensei has just explained, the play that will be acted has already been selected _and_ approved by the Principal, thus, Gaara shall be going around the class now, handing each of you a copy of the script, after which I will give you a brief moment to skim over it and shall then give you a short overview of the overall plot and characters."

Hinata stared in awe at her cousin, thinking of how wonderfully organised he was when Gaara reached her table, placing a stapled booklet of sheets on her desk before brushing past, continuing his duty of handing out a copy of the story to each class member. Blinking, Hinata picked up the booklet to stare at the large font title on the front.

_The Sharingan Princess_.

She seemed to stare at the title for a long time. For some reason, it didn't seem quite right.

Who on earth was the Sharingan Princess?

Hinata's eyes quickly scanned down the first page and found that it explained the Sharigan Princess to be a young maiden, under a curse of some sort, who (as she skimmed through the next few pages) sought help from the neighbouring kingdom to rid herself of the curse, only to find herself falling in love with the cold-hearted Prince who had a curse of his own. The young Prince was cursed to have the Kyuubi, a nine-tailed demon, possess him at every full moon. Unfortunately, Hinata found as she continued skimming through the text, the Kyuubi Prince already had his eyes set on another and the Sharingan Princess had been put into an arranged marriage.

Although it was told differently, Hinata did manage to recognise the story to be based upon a rather disturbing urban legend that surrounded Konoha Gakuen High yet had been censored (it previously had much more gore) and written so romantically that she wasn't so sure it had much to do with the urban legend as she continued reading it. She had heard the urban legend from Deidara on the first week, who thought it would be amusing to scare her with the urban legend about the nine-tailed demon and succeeded in doing so-Hinata had fainted in fright and horror much to Deidara and Kisame's amusement. Deidara had been scolded by Tobi for that incident, accused of intentional harm towards his "Pet-chan".

As Neji began to explain the story's main plot and the characters within it, Hinata began to wonder to herself why Tsunade had not noticed where the inspiration for the story had come from. She not only wondered that, but she also wondered how they would successfully act the play out without it being embarrassing as nearly every line in the story had a cheesy feel to it.

"_Oh, Fuujin, hold me!" cried the Sharingan Princess, Kushinada, to the Kyuubi-possessed prince, her arms out-stretched, reaching towards the man she loved_.

The muscle under Neji's eye twitched convulsively. "There are various roles within this play for people to volunteer for." He paused as he glared back down at the sheets of the story in his hands. "There will be a male and female lead protagonist in this play and we will also need someone to play the part of the male lead antagonist. Now for the role of the Prince, we would like some volunteers," stated a calm Neji as he scanned the room, waiting for people to raise their hands.

"Me," Naruto said with a grin, standing up and placing his foot on his chair, allowing him to lean on his knee. He pointed his thumb at himself. "Naruto Uzumaki for the lead!"

There were several boos from the members of the class and Naruto looked around indignantly at them.

"I vote Sasuke to be the Prince!" said Sakura, rising out of her seat and raising her hand.

"S-Sakura-chan?" Naruto gasped in shock, feeling a wave of betrayal.

"As much as I hate to agree with Sakura, I second that," Ino said, raising her hand as well.

"Me too!"

"I would like him to be the lead also!"

Sasuke sighed. His stupid fan club was using that ignorant brain that they had to share amongst themselves due to their immense stupidity. He didn't even want to take part in a pointless play. There were no benefits in it for him and it certainly wasn't going to help him defeat his brother in the future.

In spite of these thoughts, an idea suddenly struck him and he smirked. It was indeed a pointless play but it _would_, however, allow him an opportunity to get closer to his prey.

Gaara adjusted his glasses. "Sasuke Uchiha," he grunted, obviously displeased with the class' choice. "Do you accept the lead role?" he asked, glaring at the Uchiha from over the top of his highly polished glasses.

Sasuke smirked and leaned back into his chair leisurely, a few of the girls in the class squealing in delight. "Sure, why not?" he said coolly, the smirk never leaving his face. "And may I suggest who I would like to volunteer to play the female lead?" he asked, spinning the pen between his thumb, index and middle fingers.

Every student in the class had their eyes on him now, all of the girls whispering excitedly amongst each other, each wondering whether he was going to volunteer them to play the lead role.

Neji narrowed his eyes. "Everyone is permitted to speak," he answered vaguely, not wanting to openly give the Uchiha any approval.

"Well then," Sasuke began, his smirk widening, "I would like to volunteer Hinata Hyuuga."

It seemed that at the same time Hinata's face grew hot and she screamed "EHHH?" the entire class in unison had cried "WHHAAATTT?" All the eyes in the class room were wide with shock and surprise at who Sasuke had chosen to play opposite him. And before Hinata could hide, every head in the room turned to stare at her and she almost felt like she might melt into a puddle from how hot she suddenly felt.

"Hinata-sama," Neji repeated, as shocked as the rest of the class at Sasuke's suggestion. He turned to address his madly blushing cousin, his mouth hardening into a frown. What was the Uchiha planning, wanting his cousin to play the lead female role? Neji's frown deepened as he thought. There was no possible way he could allow Hinata to play the part of the lead female role because not only was she lacking the confidence to do such a role but there was also a kissing scene in the play... Neji's frown turned into a scowl and he clenched his fists tightly, willing to knock the Uchiha genius' lights out. But as it had been suggested, he would have no other choice but to ask Hinata whether or not she agreed to play it. He gritted his teeth and turned to his cousin whose head was down, her hair falling over her red face. "Hinata-sama, do you choose to accept the role?"

Hinata jumped at the question and raised her mortified gaze to Neji's, shaking her head violently in refusal. "N-NO!" she practically shouted, clenching a handful of her skirt underneath her table. She was quivering in fear.

The smirk left Sasuke's face and he nearly cursed her demure nature. He turned back quickly to Neji. "Is it necessary to ask for their agreement?" he asked swiftly, not wanting his plan to fail.

Neji turned his cold gaze to him, wondering what the Uchiha had in mind that he was persistent in having Hinata play the female lead role. "Yes, it is necessary," he replied coolly, dismissively. "We do not aim to force people to act if they do not wish to."

Sasuke grumbled incoherently, slouching back into his chair, annoyed that his plan would not go through after all.

Although jealous that Sasuke had volunteered Hinata to play the Sharingan Princess, Sakura nudged her Hyuuga friend, hissing across to her. "What're you _doing_? Agree and play the part! It'll be great for your shyness and it'll probably boost your confidence!"

Hinata's eyes were as wide as saucers and it seemed that her eyes would never return to their normal size as she stared in disbelief at the confident Sakura who was attempting to encourage her by chanting "you can do it!". She shook her head vigourously, unable to say anything in reply.

Sakura frowned, leaning across her table even more. "But why not?"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Hinata knew that there was only one way to prevent Sakura from continuing questioning her and raised a trembling hand which Neji regarded with shock before permitting her to speak. Red-faced and sure that every eye was on her now, Hinata hurriedly stammered, "I-I-I v-v-volunteer S-Sakura as th-the f-f-female l-lead!" She had the sudden urge to faint from all the stares she was receiving and had almost choked on her own words several times as she stammered.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock and Sasuke scowled at Hinata's volunteer choice. The last thing he needed was a member of his fan club to act out the Sharingan Princess. There was sure to be a riot if this continued.

"Sakura Haruno," Gaara spoke, pushing his glasses up. "Do you accept the role of the female lead?"

Having been temporarily numb and stunned with shock, Sakura's face suddenly broke into a wide grin. "Yes! I accept it for sure!" she cried in absolute delight, grasping the edge of her table tightly to contain herself. She was going to be acting opposite Sasuke and what was a double bonus was that there was a kiss scene between the two main protagonists of the play which Sakura silently rejoiced over inside her mind. Not only that, but it was her opportunity to shine as an actress and show the entire school her acting ability.

"That's unfair!" Naruto cried, jumping out of his seat and pointing accusingly over at Sasuke. "He gets to play the Prince? But then I demand the next lead character of the play!"

"Ahh yes, you may have it then," Neji said, smiling wryly.

"YES!" Naruto cheered in excitement, pumping his fists. "So what is it? What part am I playing?"

The corner of Gaara's mouth twitched up as he realised what role Neji had agreed to assign to Naruto. "You're playing the lead antagonist, the evil Snake King, Yamano Orochi," Gaara answered, his mouth twitching as if he were tempted to laugh (he suppressed the urge, knowing it would do harm to his awe provoking appearance if he were to suddenly burst out laughing).

Naruto's face fell. "WHAT? THAT'S A JOKE, RIGHT?"

Snickering was heard from several students around the room and Sasuke sighed, no longer caring to pay any further attention. His plan had backfired and now he was stuck in a role acting opposite a member of his fan club.

Neji cleared his throat to regain the class' attention. "Now that we have assigned the main roles, we will now begin assigning the minor acting roles and stage crew."

Rising out of her seat, hand raised, TenTen grinned at Neji. "I say that because of Hinata's generosity, she should play a minor role in the very least for having kindly given her lead role away."

Hinata's head snapped up and she stared at Tenten's back in horror as she and Sakura sat behind the senior. _Generosity? Kindly given away _my _role? NOOO! They don't understand Kami-sama! I never wanted the role anyway! I don't want any role!_ sobbed Hinata's mind as she went into panic mode.

"I shall second that!" declared Lee suddenly, rising out of his seat also. "Such a kind-hearted soul should be rewarded!"

"Me and Shino agree with that also!" Kiba said with a grin in Hinata's direction.

_Oh no, Kami-sama, nooooo..._

"Right, it is agreed then," Neji said, coughing lightly into his hand. "Hinata, you may play the Blossom Medic that appears to restrain the Kyuubi Prince during each full moon," he said, reading the character description from off of the sheet he had prepared for the lesson.

It seemed to happen on a daily basis now, the sound of Hinata's life shattering about her, reverberating only in her ears. _Kami-sama_, she thought numbly, a cold wind blowing past her, _what have I done to deserve this_?

And despite what Neji had stated previously, Hinata found herself forced into the minor role. She still was unable to come to grips with this when the lesson was coming to an end and hardly paid attention as she sat numbly in her seat.

"...of course, some alterations can still be made as we run through the scripts if we deem it suitable. Class rehearsals shall commence next week on Monday. If you have an acting role, please read over the script lines during the weekend," Neji explained as the bell sounded throughout the school. "I guess that would mean class in now dismissed, Kurenai-sensei?" he asked, turning to the dark-haired teacher who was rising from her seat.

"Yes, that would be right, thank you very much for your work Neji and Gaara," Kurenai said with a brief smile before turning to the rest of the class. "Head to your next class please!"

Before anyone else was able to leave, Neji and Gaara both strode out of the room, having left their next class' textbooks in their locker as it was conveniently close to the classroom they would be in for that period.

"So, student council president, what do you think of the alterations I made to the story?" Gaara asked as he walked down the hallway beside the stern-faced Hyuuga.

"I'm glad that you changed the story to be based on something other than that over-used fairy tale that was appropriated into it, however," Neji paused, grimacing, "you left in the names of the characters and all the disturbingly sentimental dialogue."

"I thought the dialogue was suitable to the storyline. It is, after all, a romance story-"

"That's why I don't like it!" snapped the annoyed Hyuuga.

"Ahh... so our president is bent against romance," Gaara concluded, an amused smile on his face as he readjusted his glasses. His glasses sparkled at a sudden mischievous thought. "And I thought you were involved with that tomboy who attends your martial arts dojo. Yes, that bun haired girl in our class..."

Neji's loosely tied hair suddenly slapped Gaara square in the face as he whipped his head around, intentionally aiming to harm the Designated Class' president (who now held a hand to his face in pain) as he glared murderously at him. "Don't you dare breathe a word about that to anyone," he ordered darkly.

"Ahh... yes..."

They continued along the corridor in silence before reaching their lockers.

"By the way..." began the Hyuuga as he opened up his locker. "You volunteered to play one of the minor roles in the play..."

"Yes, I did."

Furrowing his brow, Neji drew his textbook from his locker before turning to Gaara. "But why did you chose _that_ role?"

Gaara smirked, his glasses sparkling-and Neji's eyes narrowed as he had come to know the sparkle to be something of idiocy (such as Gai and Lee's sparkling smiles)-before saying in an expressionless tone as he gazed off into the distance, "It's a mystery."

"Why don't you tell me a straight answer, idiot!" Neji snapped, knowing that the class president was intentionally giving a dodgy answer.

But Gaara remained vague with his answer and it seemed like the student council president would not be able to understand why until the class rehearsals next week.

...

"A play?" Itachi repeated.

A smile lit Hinata's face as she ate her lunch. "Y-yes and Uchiha-san is playing the lead male character and Sakura is acting opposite him," she explained as she brought more rice to her mouth.

Itachi appeared to chew on his sandwich thoughtfully. "What role are you playing?" he asked suddenly, studying her expression.

"O-oh, only a m-minor role but I tried to avoid any of the major roles..." Hinata replied, blushing as she stared at her shoes, excitement dying at the question.

"And why the hell would you do that? Those roles are the best fucking ones in the entire play!" Hidan growled, prodding her in the shoulder to emphasise the word "best".

"And I heard that Hinata-chan declined a leading role, hn," Deidara added, clicking his chopsticks in disapproval at the blushing Hyuuga.

"What the flying fuck?" Hidan yelled, prodding Hinata once more in the shoulder, causing a small "ow" to issue from her mouth. "Why the fuck would you do that?" he demanded, another prod bruising her already abused shoulder.

"Stop abusing her, Hidddaannn!" whined Tobi, dragging Hinata away from the foul-mouthed Akatsuki's reach. "Never fear Pet-chan! Even if the whole world were to turn against you, I would remain by your side and protect you!" he vowed dramatically, clutching Hinata's head to his chest.

"Don't you have anything else better to do, Tobi?" Pein asked in a bored tone as he flicked through a book in disinterest.

"How could you say such a cruel thing Pein? Are you not concern about our Pet-chan's safety?" Tobi asked, aghast.

Pein's eyebrow twitched. "Why are you referring to her with an "our"? I have no interest in having a part of the ownership over her-it'd just be burdensome-and secondly, I am not in the very least concerned about her safety."

"Cruel!" Tobi cried, pointing accusingly at the indifferent Akatsuki member.

Ignoring the bickering that occurred around him, Deidara turned to Sasori. "Sasori-sama, how is that painting of Hinata-chan going, hn? It's due in three weeks time, just after the Fundraising Festival."

Sasori bit into his rice ball calmly. "I'm still working on it. It'll be finished in time for the due date," he replied in an equally calm way.

"Oh! What are you doing for your assignment, Deidara-senpai?" Hinata asked curiously, having managed to get away from Tobi.

Deidara grinned, placing a finger to his lips. "_That_ is a secret, Hinata-chan. You'll just have to be surprised when you finally see it, hn."

"My bet is that it's something completely idiotic like exploding clay," Kisame put in, casually taking a bite out of his sandwich as he leaned back on the wall behind himself.

Whipping his blonde-head in the blue-haired senior's direction, Deidara let out a venomous hiss, like one would expect from a cat who's tail had been trod on.

"Hey, don't become hostile towards me, you're the predictable one," Kisame said flatly.

Hinata cocked her head to the side quizzically. "Exploding clay?" she repeated blankly.

"Yes, it's something absurd that Deidara has been failing to successfully create for most of his high school life," Sasori added, bored.

Now, Deidara whipped his head in Sasori's direction, hissing, "It's not absurd! It's called art, hn! And besides, I have _not_ been failing this entire time, I've simply been attempting to refine my creating skills in concern of my exploding clay."

"You don't call pointless things, such as exploding clay, art. Besides, what is the difference between "refining" and "failing"? Nothing. You're simply trying to sound fancy and not so inept in art."

As the two Akatsuki artists continued to bicker, Hinata's mind drifted into imagination mode where she attempted to picture Deidara's exploding clay artwork and immediately thought of Kurenai failing him because his artwork was similar to that of a bomb...

"_...and having the nerve to put that in our school is the same as being a part of a terrorist organisation, attempting to blow up our school!"_ Hinata could almost hear her Homeroom teacher's scolding voice.

Eventually her imagination led her to a stranger string of bomb-threat thoughts until Kisame nudged her knee with his shoe, finally catching her attention. "Come on, it's time to go to class-the bell's rung. Are you going to go late to your class, or what?" he said, grinning in amusement.

Hinata's eyes widened and she quickly jumped to her feet. "Ahh! I'll be l-late to PE then and Gai-sensei may force me to run extra laps around the oval!" Hinata sobbed mentally at the thought of her having to run laps of humiliation around the rather large school oval whilst accompanied by her sports teacher (and Lee), who was so enthusiastic about his subject that he was the coach for every single sports team. PE was simply a period to taste the cruel and unusual punishment that the sports team were forced to endure.

She thought of this as she briskly walked alongside Itachi, managing to keep up for the first time, though not noticing this as she was more concerned over how Gai-sensei would react upon her arriving late. It was the Uchiha's deep voice that brought her out of her thoughts.

"Sasuke is playing the Kyuubi Prince, is he?"

Turning to him in surprise, Hinata simply nodded mutely. Silence enveloped them and Hinata found herself wondering about a question she had always wanted to ask yet feared that if she did, she may be interfering in other people's affairs. She had been told since she was young that it was ill-mannered to nose around in other people's business which was why she refrained often from questioning people about things. She gulped and summoned her courage, her curiousity getting the better of her.

Itachi, who seemed to have noticed her inner-turmoil, turned to her, somewhat expectant.

"Why d-does Uchiha-san not..." she paused, hesitating, suddenly uncertain of what she was doing. "Wh-why doesn't he like you?"

Itachi stared at her in seemingly mild surprise before turning away, his back facing her as he answered quietly. "That's none of your concern."

Startled by his cold response, Hinata stared at his back before lowering her eyes, biting her lip guiltily for attempting to intrude into his personal life. "I'm s-sorry... that was rude of me..." she said softly, bowing in regret for having asked her question.

His back continued to face her and she began to worry that he may no longer wish to talk to her because of her ill manners. After a few moments of tense silence, he spoke, his voice quiet and icy. "You have class to attend to."

"Y-yes."

Without another world, Hinata turned and headed the rest of the way to her class, scolding herself all the way for her naivety and utter stupidity.

...

It was a relief to Hinata when she arrived and found that Gai himself was running late to class having been held up in an "intense battle of strength between him and his eternal rival, Kakashi" (or at least, it was how the dark-haired PE teacher had put it) and so, the Hyuuga had narrowly escaped the extra laps she would've received.

She stepped out of the girl's sport locker room, clothed in her PE uniform and was surprised to hear someone urgently calling her name.

"Hinata!" called the pink-haired teen and classmate, Sakura Haruno, hastily making her way towards the quizzical Hyuuga. Upon reaching her, she instantly flung her arms around the Hyuuga and pulled her into an embrace, alarming the blushing indigo-haired teen. "I _love_ you!" she cried happily, squeezing Hinata in her arms. "I love you so much!"

"E-EH?" was Hinata's muffled reply, unable to find any suitable words to say in response to Sakura's rather shocking love declaration. She wasn't aware that a member of the female species would hold such feelings for her.

"Hey, hey, Sakura, calm down. She might misunderstand you," snickered Ino Yamanaka as she approached them. She winked at Hinata. "Hinata, what she means to say is that she's really grateful that you gave her the lead female role."

"I'm more than grateful! I'm in love!" Sakura said with a dreamy sigh, pulling back from the flushed Hinata who still found no words to say in what she considered to be an awkward moment. "Say, why don't you sit with the girls and I for today?" the pink-haired teen asked cheerily, tilting her head slightly as she smiled at the Hyuuga before her. "We've been meaning to invite you to our group for a while now, so why don't you come?"

_Join their group and leave the Akatsuki?_ Hinata thought, eyes widening as she was filled with sudden hope. _Escape the Akatsuki's forever and finally be considered normal by other people by spending the rest of my school days happily with actual girls from my class?_ A blissful expression lit Hinata's face as she thought happily of spending actual "girl time" with her new friends and no longer having awkward (often bizarre) and tense moments with the members of Akatsuki. Her head hung. _There's no way the Akatsuki would let me go so easily_, she thought gloomily.

Ino tilted her head to look at Hinata's dismal expression. "What's up? You'd like to hang out with us wouldn't you?" she asked.

Hinata raised her head slightly, still gloomy. "U-uh... yes... I-I would like to b-but..." Both Ino and Sakura looked her at expectantly as she continued, "...b-but... the Akatsuki..." she trailed off, hanging her head in defeat again.

"Oh, don't worry about that! It's only for today!" Ino laughed, waving away the issue as if it were meaningless. "I mean, they shouldn't mind if we only borrowed you for a day, right? I mean, how badly could they miss you if you were gone for only one lunch time?" The blonde laughed once more, amused by Hinata's anxiety over something she thought to be trivial.

_Uh... Tobi-senpai would actually surprise you..._ Hinata found herself thinking as she raised her head.

Sakura clasped one of Hinata's hands in hers, grinning brightly, eyes wide and hopeful. "So, you'll join us for lunch right?"

How could Hinata refuse?

So that was how the Hyuuga wound up following behind Ino and Sakura, who led the way to where their group sat in the school for lunch, quite a distance from the rooftop that the Akatsuki sat and thankfully (Hinata was relieved by this) out of their sight.

_Oh Kami-sama, what was I thinking? Why did I allow them to easily persuade me into skipping my usual lunchtime with the Akatsuki to sit with their group for today? I feel like it's that scenario with Neji-nii-san again where he asked me to enrol into this school. Ahh! Why don't I ever think things through before making these life-changing decisions?_

It was as Hinata thought this that they came to an abrupt halt beside a bench situated directly in front of the side of one of the school buildings and seated upon said bench were three teenagers that Hinata recognised from her class and Homeroom.

"All right! I get to introduce you to everyone!" Ino cheered, dragging Hinata forward by the arm to stand beside her and gesturing to Temari. "She's in your homeroom and our class, so I'm sure that you already know Temari." Her hand moved to point towards TenTen. "Well, she's in our class but I don't think you've ever been properly introduced to TenTen. She's a tomboy," Ino said, cupping her mouth to say the last part in Hinata's ear yet intentionally speaking loud enough for TenTen to hear. "And, we think she's infatuated with your cousin."

"Shut up, Ino!" snapped TenTen, slamming the table indignity, her cheeks coloured somewhat.

"Anyway, moving along... this is Karin and I'm sure you know her from your Homeroom."

Karin raised her hand and gave a small wave.

"And then there's me and Sakura and you already know us anyway!" Ino said as she beamed at the Hyuuga beside her. She turned back to the girls before her and placed her hands on her hips. "All right girls, let's give her a good welcome!"

"Hey," Temari greeted with a small smile.

"It's good to meet Neji's cousin," Tenten said, bowing her head in acknowledgement.

"Hi," Karin simply said, waving again.

"What kind of greeting was that? That was half-hearted, half-hearted!" yelled Ino, pointing at her group, affronted.

"Yes, yes," Sakura said with a smile, pushing Hinata gently forward toward the bench. "Just ignore her, she's just excited to have another person here," she added quietly to Hinata who felt utterly confused as to what she should do.

"Take a seat, come on!" TenTen urged, leaning over and tugging Hinata's arm to sit her down in the spare seat beside her. "So, Hinata," TenTen began conversationally, "what made you give away your role to Sakura?"

"Eh?"

"You know, was it an act of kindness or pure intuition?" pressed TenTen, openly interested. At Hinata's still confused expression, the bun-haired teen sighed and shrugged. "In actuality, I'm just curious to know because there's so many members of the Sasuke fan club that it's not funny in the least. A bit weird if you ask me, seeing as Sasuke is rather arrogant in appearance. And well, you rejected the role rather than accept it." TenTen patted her shoulder. "Good on you, you saved yourself from a cruel and unusual punishment that Sasuke would've been sure to have given you."

Hinata stared at the senior with surprise; surprised that she had said such a thing in front of certain fan girls that she knew.

"Well, I'm actually thinking of leaving the Sasuke fan club," Sakura said casually, taking a seat beside Hinata.

"Really? Have you finally admitted your defeat in our rivalry?" both Ino and Karin cried triumphantly.

Sakura smiled. "No, I'm just not really interested in being in the club anymore... it's been 3 years since I joined the club and I can't say any of us have really achieved anything. But, with this opportunity to act as the lead female protagonist... Well, I think that it would be a great chance to get to know Sasuke's character," Sakura said optimistically. "I mean, none of us have never really had a chance to be really close to him, so it would be a great opportunity to see what he's really like!"

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea to me!" Ino nodded her head in enthusiastic agreement.

Hinata wondered whether it would be considered impolite if she burst their bubble by informing them that Sasuke's character was moody, rude and that he enjoyed making fun of others. Deciding that it would be, she opted to ask Sakura how she had first come to know of Sasuke and what influenced her to join the Sasuke fan club in the beginning.

"Oh, that was when Naruto introduced him to me," Sakura explained with a fond smile as she recalled the memory, "I thought his calm and collected genius character was appealing."

"Mm, I agree!" chorused Ino and Karin, to which both Temari and TenTen rolled their eyes.

The Hyuuga wondered whether the three teens had taken Sasuke's moody disposition into account when they were thinking of "appealing", which had been something she had done upon meeting the younger Uchiha.

"So basically," Ino began, "we'd really like to see what Sasuke is really like and through this play, since Sakura, Karin and I have roles, it can allow us to observe Sasuke. It may be fun, it may make us fall in love with him more or it could even end with disappointment-though, I highly doubt it's the latter," Ino said with a confident grin. "Whatever happens, I guess it'll be the end of our membership at the Sasuke fan club."

Sakura turned to Ino in surprise. "Are you considering quitting too?"

"Yeah, all the members are either noobs or fan girl-tards anyway, so what's the point of staying there? It's too much of a hassle talking to the 'tards. They're real thick-headed and stupid to boot," Ino replied airily.

Karin shifted her glasses, the lenses gleaming in the sunlight. "Although that is true about most of the members, _I_, however, will remain in the club and refuse to accept this 'tard title."

"I think you're the biggest 'tard of all," Sakura said with a bright smile.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

As the pink-haired and red-haired teen began to argue, Hinata thought how similar this situation felt to the usual fights and arguments she had whenever she sat with the Akatsuki and the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't help but smile.

_Kami-sama... I've met some strange people in this school..._

…

Meanwhile, as Hinata was enjoying herself, Tobi sat in a corner on the usual rooftop, a dark cloud of depression hovering over his head. "My Pet-chan is not here... my Pet-chan is not here..." he muttered repeatedly to himself as he hugged his knees.

"So, what're we going to do about that loser, hn?" Deidara asked Pein (the second in command) nonchalantly, referring to the gloomy Akatsuki leader.

"Ignore him," Pein said in his usual bored tone as he continued to read his book, unconcerned.

...

It was the weekend. Hinata loved the weekend. It was undoubtedly her two favourite days of the week where she was able to take a break from school. Although it did not necessarily guarantee she was safe from the Akatsuki (especially since she had not sat with them the day before), she was still glad that at this moment, she felt like she could have a time of peace all to herself, where she could relax and not worry about whether she was being watched, judged or hated (which was something most of the girls in the school had come to do, Hinata had taken a painful mental note of that).

Stretching widely, she turned on her radio and was pleasantly surprised to find a song she liked playing. Golden Oldies. She loved them. And so, Hinata found herself singing and dancing freely to the song. She was so absorbed in what she was doing that she had not noticed her front door opening and someone stepping in.

As soon as she noticed the two figures standing across the room from her she instantly froze.

"K-Kisame-senpai! T-Tobi-senpai!" she stammered in alarm, her face rivaling a tomato. Her palms began to sweat and her shoulder twitched in her frozen position. If they were here, were the other Akatsuki as well? And not only that, but how long had the seniors been standing there watching her dance and sing before she had actually taken notice of them. And then, it suddenly clicked in Hinata's mind. "W-wait! H-how did y-you get in h-here?" she asked, her eyes wide as she glanced from the two Akatsuki members and the now wide open door which she was she sure she had locked before she had gone to sleep the night before.

"Heh." Kisame jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to the doorway behind him with a grin. "Through the door of course."

"A-ah... of c-course... b-but I meant..."

"It's just me and Tobi here today since everyone else is busy," Kisame interrupted, talking as if she had asked another question (_which I hadn't..._ Hinata mentally sighed). "Oh yeah, we asked Itachi-san if he wanted to join us but he turned our offer down, saying he had more important things to deal with," Kisame added.

_More important things...? Maybe he's trying to avoid me..._ Hinata thought miserably.

"Do another dance for us ppllleeeaasssee, Pet-chan!" Tobi chimed in, hands clasped together in anticipation.

"E-eh?" Hinata quickly turned off the radio and brushed back her hair nervously. "U-uh... why're my senpai here?"

Before Tobi could proclaim how adorable Hinata was, Kisame spoke, his usual grin never leaving his face. "Well, I heard from Itachi-san that my story was selected for the play yet they had made some alterations to it, am I right?"

"Alterations?" Hinata repeated, her brows raised in confusion.

"Yes, allow me to look at the script," Kisame said, holding his hand out expectantly.

"Ah! Yes, let me just get it from my room!" Hinata replied, hurrying to her bedroom. A few moments later, she returned with the script in hand and handed it to the blue-haired senior.

As soon as he read the opening lines of the play, his grin widened. "Well, they've decided to keep the characters as they are and how the play runs," Kisame said, nodding his head in satisfaction as he skimmed through the rest of the play.

"U-uh... is that all you wanted to check, Kisame-senpai...?" Hinata ask, confused as to why her two senpai would be at her house if it was only to check on how the school had edited Kisame's story.

Lifting his gaze from the pages before him, Kisame grinned from ear to ear. "Well, this is the fun part I suppose. I thought as the writer that it would best for me to help you get into your character since Itachi-san informed us that you have a role," Kisame explained. "So, which role do you have?"

Scratching her head, Hinata tried to recall the role that Neji had assigned her-she had been too overwhelmed with horror at that time to be able to remember it. "Ah!" Hinata exclaimed, clapping her fist into her hand as she remembered. "Th-the Blossom Medic! I-it's only a minor role though..." she trailed off, her knuckles touching her lips in one of her nervous habits.

Still grinning, Kisame waved that detail away as if it were unimportant. "Although it is a minor role, you still have an interesting character to play."

Hinata's brows raised. "Interesting? In what way, senpai?"

There was a hint of mirth in the senior's voice as he replied, "You're the Kyuubi Prince's love interest."

Without warning, Hinata's knees buckled beneath her and her eyes rolled back into her head as she fainted-because she was well aware of who was acting as the Kyuubi Prince.

"AHH! KISAME, LOOK WHAT YOU DID! PET-CHAN! PET-CCCHHHAANNNN!"

...

Sasuke's eye twitched as he glared at the older Uchiha who stood opposite him, his face impassive as he stared coolly back. "Say that again," Sasuke growled, his brow twitching.

"Hold me, Fuujin," Itachi repeated in a dull tone, straight-faced.

A vein popped out on Sasuke's head. "You sound like an _idiot_ rather than a Princess in love! And _why_ am I rehearsing this with you again?" Sasuke complained in irritation, feeling the urge to tear out his hair.

"Because foolish little brother, you may not have realised it as of yet, but you have no talent for acting," Itachi replied never lifting his eyes from the script in his hand, ever so calm.

"Neither do you!" Sasuke shot back vehemently.

"Then allow us to try this again. Hold me, Fuujin."

"HELL NO, I WON'T! SCREW THIS PLAY!" an enraged Sasuke shouted, flinging his copy of the script to the floor before stomping out of the room and slamming the door behind himself.

There was a moment of silence where Sasuke's stomping echoed throughout the house.

"Hmm... did I push him too far?" Itachi mused aloud.

Yes, Itachi Uchiha did have more important things to do. Namely, torturing his younger brother.

(Just for fun.)

...

End of chapter 6.

A/N: PHEW! That chapter is finally done! And hopefully you like it? D: The "just for fun" is in brackets because I didn't want to put it actually into the story because it kind of felt out of place for some reason when I typed it up...

Anyway, the upcoming three weeks, I'm going to be really busy with assignments and exams so if updates are later than a week, it's because I'm really overloaded, but I'll make sure to update still! D: And, after chapter 7, for anyone who's interested, I can post up a story summary on my livejournal for _The Sharingan Princess_ for those who want to know what it was about, the characters, the mythology relating to it and the links to Naruto it has... and yes, the play they're doing is my own original idea as well that I just tried to tie together with mythology and Naruto. XB

But enough of that, **thanks to you awesome reviewers!** And please kindly leave a review! :3


	7. Something that was Wanted

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumours at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: I am so sorry for the late update but I was dealing with really busy weeks full of assignments and exams, so I'm sorry about that, but it's holidays now, so yay for more updates! **To all you wise children who knew about Gaara**... you are wise beyond your years... and here I thought I was being sneaky with my plot! XD

I know you all have been wondering why I chose to make Gaara a nerd in this story but please watch this video of **Shippu! Konoha Gakuen Den Special!** to get a clear understanding where I got the _basic_ idea behind some of the characters: **www. youtube . com / watch?vuXVcWu5sM28 **(obviously remove the spaces)

Also, I realised that some of you may not like some of the minor couplings that are referred to but, I guess we all have our preferences, yes? :) **And I do apologise if the characters are a tad OOC in this... **I've just been really stressed and it's hard writing right now, so I hope you understand...

Onto chapter 7!

...

Hinata had to continuously reassure herself that she would be able to cope, even with Sasuke acting as the Kyuubi Prince. At that thought, her heart picked up speed and she squeezed her eyes shut, mentally demanding her accelerating heart to calm down.

"_Don't worry,"_ Kisame had attempted to reassure her with a departing grin, _"you only appear four times in the play and each of them are short."_

_Yes and _all _of those short appearances are in the company of the Kyuubi Prince,_ a voice at the back of Hinata's mind reminded her for, seemingly, the ten billionth time that Saturday evening.

"Oh no! What do I do? What do I do?" she cried, pacing her room, her hands in her hair.

She reasoned that there was no possible way for her to act as the Kyuubi Prince's love interest or anyone's love interest for that fact, even if it was a play. She wouldn't be able to handle any of those situations especially if the person who was acting interested was someone that she was sure didn't like her, or at the very least, he didn't think very highly of her.

"What do I do...?" she mumbled worriedly, wringing her hands. "What do I do...?"

She lifted the script in her hands so that she could read it. "F-Fuujin... uh... um..." There was a pause before she grabbed at her hair in distress, face burning red. "H-how e-embarrassing! Th-there's no p-possible way for me to d-do t-this!" she cried before deciding it was better to put the script away and forget about it for the moment.

...

"Hellloooooo there!" Tobi greeted cheerfully at the door of the Uchiha residence. "Looking as dashing as ever Itachiiii! I just wanted to visit you to give you this!" the masked senior said, holding out a love-heart shaped candy box to the older Uchiha.

Itachi did not even bat an eyelash before he proceeded to slam the door in the Akatsuki leader's face.

Tobi's hand caught the door before it closed. "Tobi was joking, Tobi was only joking..." he sobbed weakly, his throbbing fingers caught painfully in between the door and the door frame. "I'm only here because Kisame wanted to talk to Sasuke about his role in the play."

"Idiot," Itachi breathed, opening the door again. He turned to glance over his shoulder before speaking to someone behind him. "Sasuke, Kisame is here to see you."

"Why should I care for?" came the younger Uchiha's retort.

"I assume he's here to see you about _The_ _Sharingan Princess_ play and perhaps help you with it, unless you wish to continue practicing it with me."

Tobi and Kisame could almost hear the vein pop out on Sasuke's forehead. "I already told you, there's no way in _hell_ that I would act with you again!"

Itachi turned back to the two Akatsuki members outside and stepped aside, opening the door further to allow them room to enter. "I shall assume that Sasuke agrees with speaking to you from that reply," Itachi said calmly.

The blue-haired Akatsuki walked into the room, passing the impassive Itachi and grinning in genuine amusement at the younger Uchiha's dark looks and mutterings. As Tobi made to step into over the threshold however, the door suddenly swung forward and the masked Akatsuki leader was forced to quickly throw his hands up to push against the door.

"IIIItttaaaccchhiii..." Tobi whined, tears seemingly streaming down his face behind the mask. "Please let me iinnn..."

"Not unless you die," Itachi replied flatly.

"Cruel!"

"I hope you can do a better acting job than my brother," Sasuke said in disdain, as if he did not expect much from the blue-haired senior standing across from him.

The grin on Kisame's face broadened. "Mind you, Sasuke-san, I wrote that script," the blue-haired senior said, somewhat proud as he grin broadened-if humanly possible-even further.

There was silence as a fly buzzed past the two.

"Oh," Sasuke began, face blank of any emotion, "then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I severed your limbs?"

Kisame couldn't suppress his amused grin. He knew that the younger Uchiha was difficult to please and had a rather moody disposition in comparison to his older brother. In spite of this, he wondered whether the younger Uchiha's acting was as Itachi had said, not near enough to surpassing his inflated ego.

"Itttaaacchhiiii...!" Tobi continued to whine at the door, struggling against it as Itachi continued to attempt closing it on him.

Kisame spoke, not bothering to turn around. "Itachi-san, I know that may be amusing to you, but I think you can let him in now."

"Never."

...

Rain pounded against Sasuke's bedroom window as he rolled his aching shoulders, shrugging off the jacket he had been wearing to keep warm and rubbing his tired eyes as he headed to his comfortable bed that was beckoning to him. He was too exhausted to have a shower that night, deciding he would make up for it the next morning having had to stand the company of different Akatsuki members for the past two nights. He had thought he had seen the last of them when Kisame and Tobi had left the night before after attempting to give him some "thoughtful" advice-which he had thoughtfully chosen to ignore-but found his eye twitching convulsively when he was greeted at the front door by the sight of the Akatsuki group, many of them having insisted to come as to watch Sasuke "make a fool of himself, hn" (which had been Deidara's exact words as he had forcefully stepped into the house, uninvited, along with the other Akatsuki members).

"Who asked you to be here anyway?" Sasuke demanded testily, glaring at each member as they forced their way past him.

Noticing his aggravation, Kakuzu glanced at his watch. "It's 6:30am," he stated simply, as if he couldn't care less anyway.

"Oh yeah, isn't this the time he gets pissy?" Hidan asked, scratching his head in annoyance. "Aw man, because if he were to get pissy, that would piss me off too. The last thing I'd need for my blood pressure to rise is for some pubescent teen to turn PMS mode on me, y'know?"

"I hope you're not referring to me," Sasuke muttered darkly, slamming the door behind them.

"I don't think we could be referring to anyone else, hn," Deidara called from the kitchen as he stepped back into the living room eating some left-overs from the night before.

"Why the hell are you going through our fridge?" snapped Sasuke, his foul mood increasing.

"Because I _can_," Deidara replied, stopping directly in front of Sasuke as he took another bite out of the food in his hands. "What're you going to do about it, hn?" he asked tauntingly.

"Don't make me-"

"That would be enough, Sasuke," said Itachi's velvety voice as he suddenly appeared, poking an unsuspecting Sasuke on the forehead. "They've requested to come and watch you perform for them-"

"Who the _hell_ said I was performing for them?"

"-and I agreed to this request, so please perform to the best of your ability," Itachi explained smoothly, as if there was nothing further to discuss.

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched dangerously. "Itachi..." he growled lowly, gritting his teeth in irritation, his fists clenched tightly as he glared down his brother.

Ignoring the two Uchiha's, Konan spoke up as a thought came to her. "That reminds me," she asked dully, having only come as Pein had been dragged to the Uchiha residence by an insistent Tobi. "As the Hyuuga is playing the Blossom Medic, shouldn't she have been made a lead as well? She is, after all, playing the love interest of the Kyuubi Prince."

Sasuke's head whipped in her direction. "What?" he asked, stunned.

Tobi waved his finger at him disapprovingly. "Ahh, Sasuke seems to not have read the script yet despite being the main character of the play. Ahh, shame on you Sasuke, shame! And here, Kisame had kindly asked you yesterday to read over the script to get a clear idea of your character and to be able to successfully portray him-"

"Who asked you to be here?" Sasuke asked, clearly irritated by the talkative Akatsuki leader.

"_'Like brother, like brother' _, as the saying goes!" Tobi wept, stung by the Uchiha's question.

"It's _'Like father, like son'_, idiot," Pein corrected, also annoyed by the masked Akatsuki leader (as he had been dragged there despite having clearly told Tobi that he was not even remotely interested in watching Sasuke act).

And so, Sasuke had endured an entire day with the Akatsuki constantly badgering him and intentionally doing things to rile him and have him snap at them which Deidara and Kisame always found highly amusing. It didn't help that when he actually attempted to read over his lines aloud, Tobi would boo him and claim that he lacked "passion" in his reading, which resulted in Sasuke flinging his script at the Akatsuki leader's head and demanding their entire group to leave if they were not satisfied with his acting, which of course none of them did.

He thanked the rain silently as he collapsed into his bed, it being the reason why the Akatsuki had decided to leave, many not wanting to arrive home in sopping clothes (with Konan and Pein not minding as if they were quite accustomed to the rain).

He closed his eyes.

It was late and he was thankful that he could finally get some rest. He had had enough trouble with his brother intentionally setting his alarm early to wake him up in the schooldays, but if he were to have the Akatsuki persistently arrive every weekend morning (most likely to get a kick out of tormenting him), he would very well lose his sanity.

And with one last thought about the play role he resented, he allowed sleep to wash over him.

...

Creamy white, soft skin were the only words that registered in his mind.

His index finger trailed softly down her collar bone, along her arm, his dark eyes following the movement of his hand, past the cloth that enveloped them.

"U-Uchiha-san?"

Glancing up, he saw a flushed Hinata Hyuuga, seated before him in her sleeveless pajamas, waiting and watching him expectantly. "Isn't it time to get up for school now?" she asked, cocking her head to the side before reaching forward and pressing an ice-cold tomato to his face with a bright smile.

Sasuke Uchiha jolted up in bed, clamping a sweaty hand over his mouth. _What the _hell _was that?_

Before he could gather his thoughts together, knocking was heard on his door and he turned to it, his brows pulling together as he frowned. He already knew who it was without having to ask. "What is it, Itachi?" he asked roughly, not in the mood to see the other Uchiha after having had such a bizarre dream. It was normal for guys to have such dreams right, after all, nothing really happened in it besides there being a girl that he didn't hold any particular interest in. All the same, Sasuke couldn't help the twitching of his eyebrow as he recalled the dream he had had. _Creamy white, soft skin... _Sasuke found himself thinking before he growled aloud in annoyance and scolded himself mentally, reminding himself that this _was_ the Hyuuga girl he was talking about.

There was more knocking on his door and Sasuke grumbled incoherently before pulling off his bed sheets and swinging his legs over the side of his bed. "What do you _want_?" he demanded, not in a good mood after having been woken up so early. Mainly because of his dream, but it wasn't helping that his older brother was insistent on torturing him every morning.

Suddenly the door was thrown open and Tobi leapt into the room, arms open wide. "Good morning, m'dear!" he sang, jumping towards an alarmed Sasuke.

Instinctively, Sasuke kicked the Akatsuki leader in the face, sending him crashing into the bedroom door before grabbing his chest as if he had had a heart-attack. "How the _hell_ did you get into our house?" he cried, eyes still wide in shock as he stared down at the back of Tobi's head.

"Arghh... like brother, like brother, I see..." Tobi mumbled into Sasuke's carpeted floor as he slowly pushed himself back up.

"Stop saying that!" Sasuke yelled, kicking Tobi's head back into the floor. "And get out of my room already, idiot!"

Meanwhile, outside of Sasuke's door, Itachi walked away feeling somewhat accomplished. He had after all, decided to leave the front door open to allow for a non-existent breeze to come in.

...

"Uh-m... I was wondering..." Hinata began in her soft voice, embarrassed at what she had resolved to do.

It was Monday morning and instead of taking her usual route to her locker to take out the books necessary for the first two classes she had, she had made her way down to where she knew she would find the two people that she could easily trust. The two people that she was sure wouldn't laugh at her if she asked for what she needed assistance with. Although she was sure they wouldn't laugh, she still found it rather embarrassing of her to have to ask for help, but knew she had no other choice in this matter. It seemed she hardly had a choice in numerous things nowadays.

"Umm... I needed to practise my role..." Hinata explained quietly to the two people before her, somewhat embarrassed as she poked her index fingers together. "And... I can't seem to... get into character properly... so I was hoping... c-could w-we...?" she blushed, unable to continue.

Understanding her request, Kiba grinned and gave her the thumbs up as reassurance. "So you want to practise the script with me and Shino, right? Man, don't worry about asking us for help! You shouldn't be embarrassed about things like that, I mean, we're friends, right?" Kiba asked, thumping Hinata enthusiastically on the back.

Reassured, Hinata gave a small smile to her old friends. "Th-thank you," she said gratefully.

Feeling as if she were being watched, she glanced over and caught Sasuke looking in her direction as he was passing on his way to his locker. He frowned, his brows drawn down together in annoyance and looked away. Hinata continued to stare at him in surprise until Kiba and Shino took her attention once more, asking which scene she wanted to first practise with them.

"Well... I would like to... practise these scenes..." she began as she took out her script, her mind not entirely focused on the pages in her hands before her.

Somehow, she had annoyed the Uchiha prodigy. But how? She hadn't even said a word to him yet. She shook her head, attempting to clear it. Why would she need to worry herself over that matter? He seemed to be annoyed with everything she said and did, so it shouldn't surprise her anymore. It was just his moody disposition and his somewhat egotistical personality that made him annoyed with her and perhaps even look down at her. After all, why wouldn't he? No matter what she did, it seemed that he would find a reason to snap at her.

She quickly flicked through her script to the first scene that she would make her appearance in the play and decided that it was best to avoid the Uchiha for the rest of the day if he was determined to feel annoyed by her presence or for whatever reason it was that irritated him about her. She kept her eyes down on the script in her hands, lips pressed firmly together in feigned concentration as he passed by.

She didn't feel like dealing with him today.

...

"Oh yeah, I think I heard from Lee that we're going to be having a class rehearsal today," Kiba said as the thought suddenly came to him whilst Hinata continued searching for the scenes she would appear in in the play.

Hinata's eyes widened and she fumbled the script in her hands. "A r-rehearsal?" she repeated in horror, blood draining from her face.

"It's only reading over the script. Neji wants to ensure that everyone did their homework and read over the script," Shino explained simply, hands deep in his pockets as he stood off to the side.

"Yes! That's right! Are you ready, Hinata?" Sakura's enthusiastic voice called from behind the indigo-haired teen.

Hinata spun around, eyes wide in surprise at the bubblegum pink-haired teen's sudden appearance. "S-Sakura-san..."

Sakura smiled brightly and took Hinata by the arm. "Come on! Let's go to Homeroom together," she said as she began to lead the way, obviously excited by the prospect of a class rehearsal.

Hinata gazed at her confident friend by her side and lowered her eyes, smiling sadly to herself. She had wanted to become something like that. Someone brimming with confidence; someone that people noticed to have a strong and positive personality.

She had wanted something like that. A change.

And yet, she still felt that familiar bitter sensation; that feeling that was burning into her arm where Sakura held her.

A burden.

Hinata closed her eyes and simply wondered. What would it be like to be changed?

She drew closer to Sakura, who turned to her with a smile, patting her shoulder. "Do you need to go to your locker?" she asked gently, noticing the expression on Hinata's face.

"Y-yes..." Hinata replied, her voice sounding quiet and distant to her ears. She suddenly recalled that Sasuke had passed by a few minutes ago on his way to his locker and shook her head, reaching out and tugging lightly at Sakura's arm in the direction of the Homeroom, deciding against venturing to her locker during this morning time where the grouchy Uchiha was most likely to greet her. "I-I can go to it before first class..." _I don't want to trouble you_, Hinata added mentally, that burning sensation on her arm once more.

Sakura studied Hinata's face for a moment and decided against questioning her. Perhaps, there was a lot on her friend's mind at the moment. The corners of her mouth pulled into a tight smile for her friend. "Okay," she said simply as they made their way to Homeroom, arm in arm.

...

It was painful to watch as Sakura forced a pained smile, her jade-coloured eyes filled with tears that she struggled to hold back. It was too painful to watch, that was what Hinata thought as she clutched at her aching heart, wishing that she had not caused this much pain for her friend.

"Y-you... do you know..." Sakura spoke softly, voice trembling and her smile painful and strained. "Th-that... the truth is, he... he loves you instead..." she ended in a whisper, struggling to hold back the tears she knew were threatening to spill. "He..." she gulped, tears brimming her eyes as she struggled to continue smiling to the indigo-haired girl before her, clenching and fistful of her clothing tightly to prevent the tears from escaping.

"S-Sakura-s-san!" Hinata cried, tears brimming her eyes also as she watched her friend struggle with herself. She clenched her fists tightly but she couldn't bring herself to say what she knew she should. "I-I..." she began, clenched fists trembling uncontrollably as her mind went suddenly blank. "I... I-I'm so s-sorry everyone!" she choked out instead, bowing low before Sakura and the rest of the class, with many slapping their foreheads and sighing in response to the Hyuuga's predictable actions.

Neji's eyebrow twitched. _At this rate, we'll never get passed Sakura's line with Hinata-sama's compassionate personality._ The Hyuuga's eyebrow continued to twitch. _But to feel sorry for someone when they're obviously just acting..._

Reaching forward and placing a hand on Hinata's quivering shoulder, Sakura smiled at the indigo-haired girl. "Don't worry, Hinata, I'm sure we can get passed this part with more practise," she said encouragingly.

Hinata looked up at her, eyes still teary. "A-are y-you sure...?" she asked, doubtful, knowing she lacked the confidence to be able to pull of such a large acting task.

Sakura nodded confidently. "Definitely! I'm sure you'll get the hang of this acting business," she said smilingly.

Gaara's voice prevented any further conversation in the classroom as he spoke loudly to gain the class' attention. "All right, we'll go over that scene one more time."

Blushing, Hinata nibbled her lip and gazed down at the class floor, ashamed of her poor acting skills and her inability to remember any of her lines. They had already attempted doing this scene three times and every time she had failed to recall the words she was meant to say and unable to prevent herself from becoming teary-eyed from her friend's more superior acting ability. She clenched her fists tighter, her nails biting into her palm. "I don't want to do it again..." she said softly so that only Sakura could hear her, her brows knotted together.

Turning to her, Sakura noted the expression on Hinata's face and turned back to Gaara and Neji, raising her hand to call attention to herself as she intended to speak. "Well, I think we should move onto the next scene. We've done this one a couple of times already and besides, it's a first time rehearsal. I think we can focus more on scenes and correcting mistakes down the track, so let's just move onto the next scene," she explained, Hinata feeling a rush of gratitude towards her fast-thinking friend.

"All right then, if that's fine by you Neji," Gaara grunted, re-adjusting his gleaming glasses.

Knowing that it was painful for the majority of the class to watch Hinata continuously fail, he decided to give what the class wanted. "I'm fine with that," he began nonchalantly, nodding his head in dismissal to Hinata and Sakura who resumed their seats at their desks. "I think the next scene we'll have should be the one where the Kyuubi Prince encounters the antagonist of the story, Yamano Orochi. Naruto and Sasuke, that means you two," Neji said pointedly to the blonde and raven-haired teens seated before him, smirking to himself. He knew that although Hinata was not a very good actor, it was only because she lacked confidence in herself and he was quite sure that the two teens now standing before him and the class, glaring at one another, were simply all talk and physical strength and because of this, Neji had concluded that they most likely lacked in drama abilities.

And how right was he.

"You," Sasuke began to read in a flat voice, his eyebrow twitching and mouth pulled down into a straight line as if he were focusing. "I will not allow you to take Kushinada away," he continued to read in his monotone voice as he drew out the sword from the sheath hanging on his school belt, a prop given to him by the class president.

Naruto squinted at the script in his hand, frowning as he too, appeared to be concentrating hard. "Um, argh, you shall not stand in my way... um..." Naruto fumbled the sword prop in his hand, earning a few laughs and giggles from his classmates. He raised the sword and pointedly it directly at Sasuke, eyes however, never leaving the page held up before his eyes. "This is the path she has chosen and I shall take her... you... cannot... stop me..." Naruto attempted to emphasise.

"I won't allow this," Sasuke replied dully, pointing his sword at Naruto also.

An awkward silence settled over the class as they watched the duo's poor performance before them.

Ino sweat dropped and scratched her platinum blonde hair, puzzled. "Um... are they serious?" she asked, feeling embarrassed for the two rehearsing in front of the class.

"I think they are serious," TenTen replied, also sweat-dropping.

Kiba held his sides as he laughed hysterically, mentioning that he couldn't breathe as he rocked on his chair from laughing so uncontrollably. "AHAHAHAH! You guys reek! You're awful!" he choked between laughs.

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.

"Shut up! It's not my fault that _he_ can't act!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at the annoyed Uchiha.

Sasuke snorted, a sneer marring his face. "_You're_ the one who can't act, dobe!"

"What'd you call me?" Naruto snapped, throwing his script to the floor.

Sasuke followed suit, his script also falling to the floor. "You heard me, _dobe_," Sasuke hissed.

"Now, now," Kakashi said cheerily, their teacher for first period. He calmly walked up to the two, stopping in front of the both of them and placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Let's remain calm about this, yes? It's nothing to fight about, after all, we're all friends here, right?" he said, with supposedly a smile behind his mask.

Both Sasuke and Naruto continued to glare at one another, clearly contradicting Kakashi's words.

Gaara glanced over at the student council president, noticing the way the Hyuuga's brow twitched convulsively in annoyance and cleared his throat. "I think that's about enough. We'll have the actors for the next scene of the play," he said in cool dismissal.

Hinata watched as both Naruto and Sasuke threw one last glare at one another before they turned huffily, resembling children as they stormed back to the seats.

"I think it's pretty clear that Sasuke just ruined his image in mere minutes in front of the entire class," Kiba said to Shino, not bothering to lower his voice.

Oddly enough, Hinata turned to look at him over her shoulder, her brows creased together in somewhat of a frown. "K-Kiba-kun…" she mumbled, unable to scold her friend yet feeling sympathetic towards the Uchiha prodigy. She knew how it felt to be mocked because of the inability to act.

Kiba simply grinned and raised one shoulder in a shrug and Hinata fell silent before turning back, her pale eyes resting on the pink-haired teen beside her who seemed to be forcing a smile.

"S-Sakura-san?" Hinata asked, worried by the strained smile.

Sakura remained silent for a moment longer before breathing out. "Oh. My." She turned to the concerned Hyuuga, her brow twitching in sync with the corner of her mouth. "Oh my," she said simply again, pressing her hand over her mouth to contain a laugh she was sure would escape.

"S-Sakura-san?" Hinata repeated, watching as Sakura doubled over with suppressed laughter. Realising that the slightly older Haruno was only laughing, she smiled in relief and lowered her head onto the desk to be level with Sakura. "You're not disappointed are you?" she asked softly, recalling Ino's words the other day.

"Ahahah!" Sakura laughed into her hand, attempting to stifle her giggles.

Hinata waited patiently for her friend to sober up, hardly listening to the chatter around them or the performances before them.

"It's nice," Sakura whispered to her as she stared straight ahead, a bright smile lighting her face.

Tilting her head to the side, Hinata remained silent and waited for her to continue.

Closing her eyes, Sakura continued to smile as she spoke. "They're like brothers. Both of them."

_Naruto-kun and Uchiha-san?_ Hinata thought as she glanced across the classroom at both Sasuke and Naruto, the Uchiha with a serious expression on his face, brows knotted furiously together and Uzumaki with a cross between a frown and pout on his. _But Uchiha-san already has a brother…_

Now that she thought about it, whenever both Uchihas were mentioned in the same sentences, it wasn't because they were relating them together as brothers but rather as enemies; two people who supposedly hated each other (well, it was true in Sasuke case). Why didn't anyone recognise them as brothers as they did with Naruto and Sasuke?

_Uchiha-senpai, do you prefer being considered Uchiha-san's enemy rather than his brother?_ Hinata found herself wondering as Sakura, being a main character for the play, was called up to perform with Ino in the next scene. _Do you mind that people are replacing you, as Uchiha-san's brother, with Naruto-kun?_

…

"Hey, where's Hinata-chan, hn?" Deidara asked as he scanned the rooftop at recess, seating himself.

"She's probably somewhere rehearsing her parts in the play," Sasori answered in disinterest as he pulled out a banana and began to peel away the skin.

"Konan can confirm that," Pein said as he pulled himself up onto the roof from the ladder.

"That would be correct. I just saw her when Pein and I were heading here, practising her lines with two boys from her class, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame," Konan stated as she also pulled herself onto the rooftop and headed to her usual spot.

"Ahh, glad to see she's working hard on my play," Kisame said with a grin, biting into his sandwich.

"Well, that still kind of pisses me off," Hidan put in grumpily, folding his arms over his chest as he scowled.

"Why would that piss you off?" Kakuzu asked. "We're not losing any money from her absence, are we?"

Hidan whipped his head in the direction of the group's banker, sneering. "All you ever fucking think about is money! It pisses me off!"

"Oh, that's a surprise, since literally _everything_ pisses you off," Deidara said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the silver-haired Akatsuki member.

"Who the hell asked you, piss brain?"

There was a moment of silence before Kakuzu spoke up in a dangerously low tone. "Hidan."

"What?" Hidan snapped, turning back to the money-interested Akatsuki member.

"Shut up or I'll kill you," Kakuzu warned.

"I'd like to see you try!"

"Can someone deal with him?" Zetsu asked, nudging the Akatsuki leader with his foot as he lay on the floor. "He's frothing at the mouth."

"That idiot gets worse each time Hinata-chan's absent from the group, hn," Deidara said indifferently as he continued to eat his lunch.

Pein glanced over at Tobi before turning his attention back to his recess, ignoring the sulking senior. "What an idiot."

...

"F-Fuujin... p-please take b-better care of yourself!" Hinata forced out.

Raising a brow but deciding it was best to continue, Kiba replied, "As long as you remain by my side, I will do so."

Hinata flushed, unable to focus on her script any further. "Ah... ah... ahh..." she stammered, too embarrassed to continue.

Kiba wanted to sigh aloud but suppressed the urge to, knowing that he had to simply wait patiently for Hinata who he knew to be a very shy and self-conscious girl. There was no need to scare her by showing his impatience. What she needed now was encouragement, not further discouragement.

Although he was trying not to show it, Hinata knew that the Inuzuka must be frustrated with their continual need to go over the same lines as she would forget her lines or freeze up on the same part, each and every time. Yet still, she continued to receive words of encouragement from both Kiba and Shino who knew it was best to be patient with her.

"I-I'm s-sorry…" Hinata stammered, staring at her shoes in embarrassment, knowing that the apology probably wasn't sufficient enough for the many times they had gone over the same scene. _I'm hopeless!_ she thought bitterly, biting her lip.

Noticing that she was disheartened, Kiba quickly waved away her apology. "It's okay, don't worry about it! We'll just go over that part again, just stay calm and focus on your lines," he said supportively, grinning at the deflated Hyuuga. "Come on, Hinata, don't worry! You're capable of doing this, I know it!" he added, hoping to keep her spirits up. Kiba glanced over at Shino.

"Yes, Hinata. You have our support," Shino put in at Kiba's look.

"Yeah, so come on! Let's do this again!" Kiba enthused.

Biting her lip, Hinata drew in a deep breath before lifting her chin determinedly. Now wasn't the time to be depressed over what she lacked. She needed to work hard at improving rather than brood about it. The official performance was in less than three weeks time now and there was no time for her to waste on moping. She clenched her fist.

Hadn't it been what she wanted? A change?

"O-okay. H-here I go," she said, recalling her first few lines in the scene.

She had to continue to work harder to achieve that goal.

That dream.

...

The first three days of the week flew by and the Akatsuki hardly ever saw Hinata as she would devote her recess and lunch to rehearsing the play with both Kiba and Shino with it resulting in her being able to get through the first scene with only a few hiccups and the second scene caused quite a bit of trouble for her as it was a scene with only her and the Kyuubi Prince, Fuujin Kazemaki, and throughout the entire rehearsal, her imagination remained on overdrive with her being unable to get the image of Sasuke Uchiha reading in a monotonous tone the romantic lines of the Shippu Kingdom Prince. With those thoughts in her head, she struggled continuously to remember her lines for that scene. How would she deal with this scene when she actually had to rehearse it with the Uchiha prodigy? The very thought of it was unnerving.

It was recess on Thursday when Hinata was tapped on the shoulder as she was rehearsing with Kiba and Shino and she noticed the alarmed expressions on both of her friends' faces which alerted her at to who it could possibly be. Her guess was confirmed when she turned and looked at the Akatsuki member behind her.

"S-Sasori-senpai!" Hinata said in surprise, wondering what could possibly bring the senior out to this area.

"It's quite bothersome that the leader sent me out here to get you," Sasori stated, to the point, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"T-Tobi-senpai? Is he alright?" Hinata asked in a sudden rush of concern.

"In a sense, no," Sasori replied simply. He paused and stared pointedly at Hinata causing her to blush. "I do hope you remember that I hate waiting."

"E-eh?" Hinata stammered, not understanding what he meant, the colour deepening in her cheeks.

Sasori's eyes narrowed further. "Are you going to make me repeat myself?" he asked in a deathly tone.

"Hey, I don't know what business you have with Hinata but I don't like your threatening tone buddy," Kiba interrupted, stepping in front of Hinata and standing between her and the glaring senior.

Raising an annoyed brow at Kiba's intrusion, Sasori glanced over at Shino, taking note of his offensive stance from the side before returning his gaze to the Inuzuka and speaking crisply, "I am not, in any way, your 'buddy' nor was I in any way talking to you. Tobi has requested that I escort the Hyuuga back to the Akatsuki." Ignoring the two teenaged boys, Sasori shifted his attention back to Hinata. "Hurry up, I already told you that I hate waiting."

_But you didn't say anything about me coming with you in the beginning!_ Hinata cried exasperatedly in her head before sighing defeatedly and stepping out from behind Kiba who looked at her in surprise. She forced a smile. "I-it's all right, I sit w-with them," she explained briefly, sweat dropping when Kiba's mouth fell open in horror.

"Y-you…? Whhaaat?" Kiba cried in surprise, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Hinata smiled nervously until the Akatsuki member turned on his heel and began to walk away which made her bow quickly to her classmates with a hurried goodbye leaving her lips before she chased after Sasori.

"Do I have to repeat everything I say to you?" he asked in irritation when she finally caught up to him.

Biting her lip, Hinata stared down at the floor underneath her feet. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Silence fell over them as Sasori led the way back to the group, walking briskly ahead of her and Hinata sighed mentally, always finding it difficult to initiate a conversation with any Akatsuki member. She struggled with herself to say something to the senior ahead of her and was disappointed when they reached the ladder that led to where the Akatsuki sat on the rooftop and she still had not started any kind of conversation. It was one thing she would have to work on with each Akatsuki member.

Though it was expected, she was still alarmed when Tobi practically leaped from his spot on the rooftop at her, nearly succeeding in embracing her entirely had Hidan and Deidara not jumped forward and restrained him.

"Fucking pervert," Hidan growled.

"Stupid idiot," Deidara added.

"AHHHH! PET-CHAN! PPPEEETTT-CHHHAAANNN!" Tobi sobbed, fighting against his restraints. "I will not stop until I have held my Pet-chan!" he vowed, continuing to struggle against both Hidan and Deidara's hold.

"H-hello, Tobi-senpai," Hinata greeted, sweat dropping as Tobi continued to thrash about.

"Pet-chan is calling to me! Did you hear? She's calling to me! Return to my arms my beloved!"

"I could fucking kill you, moron!" Hidan threatened causing Hinata to sweat drop further as he tightened his hold on the Akatsuki leader.

"He's bordering on insane as you can see, although, it's nothing new," Pein explained in his bored tone without looking up, casually reading a book.

"Ahh… y-yes… o-okay…" Hinata sat down, still watching Tobi struggle in concern.

"Don't concern yourself with his idiocy."

The unmistakable velvety voice made her jump in surprise. She turned, her pale eyes meeting the older Uchiha's dark ones.

"U-Uchiha-senpai," Hinata greeted, lowering here eyes. Monday's thoughts of the Uchiha brother relationship ran through her head once more and unconsciously she clenched fistfuls of her skirt.

Itachi noted her clenched fists, his lashed obsidian eyes returning to her face. "Konan stated that you've been practising," he said, concise and to the point.

Hinata jumped once more at his voice. "U-uh... yes... I have been..."

There was a pause where Itachi simply observed her, his face portraying nothing. "Are you going to rehearse with Kisame?"

Hinata shook her head. "N-no... I was hoping... um..." she paused and poked her index fingers together, knowing that so far she had failed miserably in all her rehearsals with Sakura, Kiba and Shino who she knew must be becoming impatient despite how much they reassured her that she would do fine on the actual day. She still struggled to get through the first scene and with the second scene, she found she was unable to deal with the uncomfortable situation she knew she would be in when she would be rehearsing with the younger Uchiha.

Itachi watched her fidget nervously for a few moments. "Would you prefer rehearsing with me then?" Itachi asked, tilting his head to the side as he studied Hinata.

Heat rose into Hinata's cheeks and she hurriedly waved her hands wildly in refusal. "N-no!" she exclaimed, too embarrassed by even the thought of rehearsing her scenes with the older Uchiha. "I-I wouldn't want to trouble you," she added hastily, hoping that she hadn't offended him with her sudden refusal in case he had been offering.

"It wouldn't be of any trouble," Itachi replied calmly.

Hinata shook her head and bowed quickly, face still burning. "I-I appreciate it though," she murmured, cheeks still coloured pink as she tried not to imagine Itachi reading aloud the Kyuubi Prince's lines.

He nodded and turned away, eating his recess in his trademark silence and Hinata breathed out mentally in relief.

Reaching into her bag, Hinata smiled to herself as she pulled out her recess. There were so many people who were willing to help her with the play. It made her very happy to know that there were people who wanted her to succeed or improve. It made her very happy.

"Peeettt-ccchhhhaannnn!"

And despite that, she couldn't help but feel frightened by those people as well. She sweat dropped and turned to see Deidara and Hidan continuing to restrain Tobi. "Uh-m... m-maybe... Deidara-senpai, Hidan-senpai... it's all right to l-let Tobi-senpai go... I-I really don't mind if he h-hugs me..." _Since he really just hugs my head..._ Hinata added thankfully in her head.

"Don't encourage him," Kisame said with a laugh.

"DID YOU HEAR THAT? RELEASE ME NOW, MY LOVELY PET-CHAN COMMANDED SO!" Tobi cried, struggling more violently against Deidara and Hidan's hold.

"I've loaded my pockets with exploding clay, so if you keep thrashing about you'll trigger them!" Deidara yelled, frustrated.

"Why the flying fuck did you load yourself with fucking exploding clay?" Hidan shouted in disbelief, his grip loosening on the Akatsuki leader.

"We have art next period!" Deidara explained defensively.

"That's no excuse, piss brain!"

"Idiot," Sasori mumbled as he bit into his sandwich.

"What did you call me?" Deidara yelled, throwing his fists up, prepared to fight. In a split second, he froze, his eyes widening in horror.

"A fucking piss brain!" yelled Hidan as Tobi escaped both their holds and leapt, seeming to soar across the sky towards a terrified Hinata, rooted to the spot.

"PPPEEETTT-CHHHHAANNN!"

There was a painful crunching sound as Itachi's foot met Tobi's face in a swift and effortless manner.

"U-Uchiha-s-senpai..." Hinata stammered in horror, her eyes as wide as saucers as she watched Tobi fall to the ground.

Itachi calmly continued to eat, never turning to look at the damage he had caused. "He'll recover," he said, unconcerned.

"A-as that s-song goes... _You're as cold as ice_," Tobi muttered weakly from the pain.

Yes, Hinata couldn't help but feel frightened by those supportive people as well.

...

It was Friday afternoon, the fifth and final period for the day when Neji announced that next week would be when they would begin rehearsing scenes as a class, with the following week being the official dress rehearsals.

Hinata could almost hear her world shatter repeatedly in her ears. There was no possible way that she could act out her scenes with Sasuke being present in each and every one of them. All she could hope was that she could somehow take advantage of the possible alterations that they were allowed to make. All she could do was hope.

That didn't solve the stomach ache she was having from stressing.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she placed her hands together and simply prayed that she would be able to endure the hardships she was sure was to come. She only had the weekend to prepare herself for it.

Even in the weekends, Sasuke had to force himself to take deep breaths to calm himself as he felt an aneurysm approaching. He gritted his teeth at the loud chatter around him which had cause the throbbing morning migraine and took another deep breath.

"Who asked you all to be here?" he asked in a low voice, attempting to restrain himself from exploding. "And why... are you raiding our fridge again?" he snapped at Deidara, who simply raised his brows in innocence, the bone of a drumstick popping out of his mouth.

"This guy's always pissy," Hidan grumbled, picking up a CD from a disc-rack nearby, examining it.

Kakuzu raised a brow as he turned to him. "You're one to talk, Hidan."

"Does that mean Tobi can raid your fridge too?" the Akatsuki leader asked as he practically bounced over to the kitchen. "Would anyone else want some food too?" Tobi sang out from the kitchen as the sound of the fridge door opening was heard. "Tobi's a good boy for asking!"

A vein popped out on Sasuke's forehead and he clenched his fists, teeth grinding as he slowly counted down from ten.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind having some food," Kisame answered with a grin.

"Me too, hnn," Deidara agreed, his voice muffled as he ate the roasted chicken that sat on the plate in his lap.

Sasori's brows creased together as he looked at the chicken. "You're already eating, idiot."

"By the way, where's Itachi?" Zetsu asked as he seated himself comfortably on the large sofa.

Flicking a fleck of lint off her clothes in boredom, the well-informed Konan answered, "I do believe he left early to supposedly visit the Hyuuga doctor to check his eyesight, although, I am one to believe that he simply left to leave Sasuke to deal with us on his own."

That was the last straw for Sasuke.

Upon returning to the front of the Uchiha residence, Itachi Uchiha simply blinked and continued to walk down the street, looking about himself. Convinced that it wasn't his bad eyesight, he back-tracked to the unmistakable Uchiha mansion, it's front door hanging by a hinge, windows smashed and a random roast chicken laying abandoned on the driveway.

He then made a mental note to never leave Sasuke alone with the Akatsuki ever again.

...

End chapter seven.

A/N: OMGOSH, I finally updated! I'm so glad! This chapter was extremely long because I hadn't updated in so long, so I do apologise for that.

Here is my livejournal link to the characters in the play, who's playing them and how they link to mythology and the Naruto universe: **errechan . livejournal . com #cutid1 **(please removes the spaces) I know I said that I'd have the storyline for the play up with this chapter but I've been really busy, so I only have the characters and the explanations up. Hopefully by the next chapter I'll have it up. D:

So anyways, I wish I could reply to all you reviewers because you're all wonderful but please do continue to leave reviews. **Thank you for your continual support, you guys are awesome! **:)


	8. Mint Chocolate Icecream

**Rumours and Assets**

The rumours at Konoha Gakuen High have been confirmed and Itachi Uchiha is indeed pursuing the new Hyuuga girl. And for the sake of defeating him, Sasuke wants to win her affections first. With his good looks and "too cool for you attitude", it couldn't be too hard, right?

A/N: I'm very excited to write this chapter, but I'm really worried that I can't write this chapter well... I've been looking forward to it, so I'll do my best everyone! And a note to you all: **no one has romantic feelings towards anyone** **yet**, unless I have clearly had them or others express so (unless, of course, it was the rumour, because you can't always trust what anyone says. :) ) Just want to mention this in case any more people are going to stress over it. I want to build up the characters and their relationships with one another before putting in the romance.

Anyway, onto the chapter!

...

Wave after wave washed over him, constantly knocking him over, as he struggled to break the surface of the water to catch his breath, eyes squeezed shut, ears, nose and mouth filled with the salty water of the ocean. He continued to struggle in vain against the never-ending tumultuous waves, hands flailing wildly, in an attempt to keep his head above the surface, desperate for air. "Brother!" the gurgled sound that issued from his salt water-filled mouth sounded both weak and pathetic, but in such a situation, the younger of the Uchiha siblings was willing to swallow his pride. "Big brother!" His wail was cut off as a wave crashed over him, forcing him under.

Sure and strong hands took hold of him, pulling him up out of the water's depths deftly, as if the young Uchiha were incredibly light; his weight utterly meaningless to the one who plucked him easily from under the waters surface. The person held him close, carrying him back to the sandy shore as the younger boy scrubbed the salt water out of his eyes.

"Next time, do not go out on your own, Sasuke," came the gentle and concerned voice of the older Uchiha, Itachi, as he placed his seven year old brother onto the sandy shore, assisting in wiping away the excess amount of sand and sea water from his small round face; Sasuke's face scrunched up as he allowed his brother to do so.

"I'm old enough to go out there on my own," the younger of the two insisted, mouth pulled into a firm and stubborn line.

"But not an adequate enough swimmer to be doing so from what I saw," replied Itachi, Sasuke opening his eyes to pout at him, deflated.

"Well, I want ice-cream then! Brother, you promised!" Sasuke cried abruptly with renewed vigour, pulling insistently at Itachi's arm.

The older of the Uchiha siblings sighed, a bemused smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Yes, I do recall such a promise. Shall we go then?"

...

Itachi Uchiha's eyes slowly opened from sleep, his gaze meeting the off-white ceiling of his bedroom, light steaming in through the slightly opened blinds, touching the tips of his hair as he continued to lay flat on his back, silent and still, recalling the memory he had just dreamt of.

As silent as he had been when he had awoken, Itachi shifted up into a sitting position in bed, running a steady hand through his hair before placing his legs over the side of the bed, deep in thought as he planted his feet firmly on the carpeted floor of his bedroom, rising to prepare himself for the day ahead. Walking out of his room, he eased down the corridor that separated his and the younger Uchiha's bedroom, not a sound issuing from the floor as he skilfully made his way across it, knowledgeable of the spots that would allow a creak to issue from it if ignorantly stepped on. Stopping outside of the specific door, Itachi simply stared at the pale white colour of it, unmoving and scarcely breathing, as if any sound he made would alert the person within it of his presence.

Why did he always hesitate when he reached this point?

He raised his hand slowly, reaching towards the door knob, hand pausing as he was about to touch it. His hand dropped back to his side and he turned away, silently trudging away, disappointed in himself. He had begun this hadn't he? Why didn't he simply resolve it; end it?

A young Sasuke reached up, offering his brother his half-eaten ice-cream, a messy ring of chocolate chip mint around his mouth as he smiled brightly, tiny ice-cream covered teeth showing. "I'm sorry you dropped yours, brother. But you can have mine. It tastes really nice, honest!"

That image, that memory, simply wouldn't leave Itachi's mind. He placed a hand over his mouth as he coughed, pain rising in his chest, causing him to hold a hand to his chest as he doubled over, the harsh coughs continuing to issue from his mouth, rattling his entire body as he shook from its force.

A door was thrown open behind him and footsteps sounded behind him, and Itachi attempted to force the coughs to stop, closing his mouth and trembling as he tried to hold in the urge to cough, blood dripping from his mouth and staining his hand. A hand closed roughly around his arm and Sasuke began to drag his brother towards the front door of the house, his hair unkempt and clothes in disarray, having just woken up.

"Sasuke," Itachi coughed, staring in surprise at his younger brother's back as he kicked open the front door in aggravation.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder, dark rings lining his eyes from lack of sleep, glaring at the older Uchiha as he continued to drag him out of the house. "The doctor's," he simply grunted, slipping his feet into slippers and forcing Itachi to do the same. "You never do what anyone tells you to, even if you're pathetically sick," Sasuke growled in anger as he waited impatiently for Itachi to place shoes on, his painful coughs forcing him to stop every so often. "And if you don't stay healthy, how the hell am I going to beat the crap out of you at full power?"

Wiping away the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, Itachi sighed inwardly, shoes finally in place as he pushed himself up, another cough shaking his body. "I have… more important matters to—"

"What can be more important than looking after one's self?" Sasuke asked, clearly irritated as he pulled Itachi to his feet. "You look after yourself and forget about ties with anything else, anyone else!"

Itachi's gaze rested on the floor and a flicker of emotion, that Sasuke could not name, passed in his eyes. There was a pause before Itachi brushed off a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth—and the younger Uchiha could've sworn he saw that corner of his mouth twitch up—, his face impassive as he stated calmly, "I'm fine now. The coughs have ceased."

Eyes widening in disbelief and mouth twisting in fury at what was known as the Uchiha's stubborn—and sometimes infuriatingly ignorant—pride, Sasuke opened his mouth to say something in response when without warning, Itachi reached up, poking Sasuke on the forehead, a brief smirk pulling at the older Uchiha's mouth.

"I'm sorry Sasuke. Maybe next time."

And with that, Itachi stood, turning towards the front door and heading back into the house, needing to prepare for the day ahead as it was a school day, leaving behind an annoyed and slightly confused Sasuke who rubbed his forehead, wishing that annoying feeling of nostalgia would simply leave.

...

Shizune was not at all pleased as she stormed down the school corridor towards the principal's office. As vice-principal, she had every right to discuss this issue that the school's principal had attempted to conceal, conveniently forgetting to inform her about the problem. Her heels clicked furiously against the tiled school floor as she stalked across it, closing in on the principal's office door, flinging it open without another thought. The sight that greeted her would've amused anyone else, but Shizune simply let out an infuriated roar as Tsunade attempted to escape the room by climbing out the window, having heard Shizune's thunderous footsteps as she approached her office.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune cried in disbelief. "Get down from there before you hurt yourself!" she yelled, panic sneaking into her tone as Tsunade swung her leg up onto the window sill.

Tsunade looked back over her shoulder, cheeks rosy from drinking, and she waved a very lazy greeting as she tipped precariously forward over the window ledge. "Ooohh, it's you Shizune!" was her slurred greeting.

"You came to school drunk?" Shizune cried thunderstruck before racing forward to stop the principal from toppling over the window sill.

Back on her two feet, Tsunade waved Shizune impatiently away, staggering back to her desk and plopping down into her seat exhausted.

"Tsunade-sama! I cannot believe that you gambled our school's funds away again! What made you think you could win this year?" Shizune burst out angrily. "I know that's the real reason why you're holding this fundraising event! How could you-"

"Shizune," Tsunade said firmly, cutting her off as she glared at the vice-principal. "Firstly, I am not drunk, I just had one drink today and besides, it's early Monday morning. Secondly... I have gambling problems."

"I can already see that!" Shizune cried in disbelief.

"But..." Tsunade continued, lowering her gaze to her desk as she thought, "...I actually used this year's school funds to repay the debts we had for the past years issues. And so, because of that, we needed to raise some more money to cover the rest of the debts and ensure that they don't threaten to close down our school anymore."

"But! How can you possibly believe that these kids can fundraise enough money for the school's debts?"

Swivelling her chair around to face the window, Tsunade smiled to herself as she gazed out at the azure sky. "Because, I simply do believe in them. Those kids." She let out a sigh through her smiling lips and swung back around in her chair to face an uncertain Shizune. "And besides," she added with a laugh, "I heard the Uchiha boy is acting in this one. This should attract crowds."

_Wait... perhaps... did Tsunada-sama intentionally give the play to Sasuke-kun's class to ensure that he would get a role and attract crowds to make lots of money?_ Shizune sweat dropped before shaking her head in disbelief as she watched Tsunade laugh triumphantly to herself. _What a calculative principal..._

_..._

Her knees were shaking, practically knocking together and she could feel herself hyperventilating as she gazed up at the school gates. Perturbation rose into her throat and Hinata forced herself to swallow it down, gulping in fear.

It was Monday morning.

It was the day that they would officially begin rehearsing and though Hinata had practised her lines throughout her entire weekend, she was no more confident than she had been the last week. How could she possibly survive this? How would she be able to overcome this? How would she even be able to willingly step into the school, surely to her doom?

She clasped her hands together over her chest, feeling them tremble and biting her lip nervously.

"Hinata?"

Startled, Hinata jumped, spinning around quickly to find Naruto standing behind her, staring at her quizzically. She placed a hand over her racing heart as it slowed, sighing in relief to see that it was only her blonde-haired classmate. "Oh, g-good morning, Naruto-kun."

"Yeah, good morning. Why are you standing out here?" Naruto asked, to the point, cocking his head to the side as he stared at Hinata who blushed in embarrassment, having been caught. "Is something wrong?"

Hinata shook her head mutely, lowering her gaze to her black leather shoes, embarrassed.

"Then come on, let's go inside together!" Naruto enthused with a cheery grin.

Silence fell as Hinata remained where she was, shaking her head and biting her lip fearfully. She couldn't do it and she _knew_ it. There was no possible way that she could go through with this, her heart was bursting at the seams with the strain placed upon it by her fear, something that she was unable to shake.

The grin on Naruto's face dropped and he cocked his head to the side once more as he stared, puzzled, at the Hyuuga heiress. He watched as she pressed her hands more tightly together and noticed them tremble as she did so, surprised and confused as to what she could possibly fear about in the school. His mind suddenly drifted back to last week, to the reading rehearsals their class had completed for the play. "Are you scared?"

"Eh?" Hinata turned to see Naruto's gentle smile and a reassuring wave of understanding emanated from him as if he understood her fear and could emphasise with it.

"It's alright," Naruto said with his cheerful grin, "we only have to do our best, and as long as we do that, everything will be alright."

The words were comforting to Hinata, warming her fearful heart and the trembling ceased, her body relaxing, relieved from a heavy burden she felt she had been carrying for a long time. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thinking calmly of how fortunate she was to have the support of many people. It made her happy; glad that there were people that were concerned over her, wanting to help her along the way to changing.

Naruto's voice sang through Hinata's thoughts enthusiastically, his fist clenched in anticipated excitement. "Come on, Hinata! We'll charge in together! We'll take this head on!"

In response, Hinata clenched her fist also in determination and agreement, a shy smile lighting her face. "Yes!"

A delighted grin broke onto Naruto's face, and Hinata realised the boyish charm that radiated magnificently from him, before he turned, marching through the school gates determinedly, with Hinata following happily behind, her cheeks tinged rouge, glad for her classmate's company.

Hinata placed a hand over her heart, unable to stop smiling. _Kami-sama... I am so glad to be so fortunate._

…

"So, you have your first official rehearsal today, hn?" Deidara asked with an amused grin, leaning his cheek onto his closed fist, observing Hinata as she silently nodded.

It was homeroom and Kisame-excluding Itachi, because he seemed incapable of displaying any true emotion, and Sasori because he just didn't give a damn-watched in amused interest as Deidara interrogated Hinata in concern of the play rehearsal that her class was to hold that day.

"So, are you frightened?" Deidara asked, tilting his head to the side, grin still plastered to his face.

Hinata gave the art student a small smile. "Yes," she answered, voice gentle as she recalled Naruto's face from earlier that morning. "But even so, as long as I try my best, everything will be alright," she added softly, the smile never leaving her lips.

All of the Akatsuki members turned to regard her in mild surprise from her unexpected reply. Although it clearly was not confidence that came from her, it was a manner of quiet reassurance, as if she truly did believe in the words she had said. And it was that strange calm manner that the Akatsuki members saw as Hinata left for her first period class when the bell sounded, smiling and waving as she farewelled her senior companions.

Deidara was the first to speak, the look of surprise not having left his face as he stared after Hinata's retreating back. "For some reason... I feel like doing something that idiot leader of ours would do, hn..." he murmured, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"It's interesting... somehow, she must've matured over the weekend," Kisame spoke, the corners of his mouth pulling up as he grinned.

"I think it's strange," Sasori put in as they began to file out of the classroom, Kurenai ushering them out.

Silent as ever, Itachi was first to step out of the classroom, and it required some poking from Kisame to coerce his opinion on the subject out of him. "The performance is in two weeks. Before that time, we should ensure that we have secured tickets," he spoke smoothly, pacing easily down the corridor.

"That's quite an idea, Itachi-san," Kisame replied, giving his approval.

"Normally, I never agree to anything you say, but I think I can 'secure' front row tickets, hn," Deidara put in in response.

"I don't believe that you're even capable of securing tickets on your own, Deidara, so I propose that I fulfil that role," Sasori suggested, bored.

Deidara whipped his head in the other art student's direction, insulted. "You're an ass, you know that?"

So it was decided.

The Akatsuki were going to watch Hinata's performance, whether she liked the idea or not.

...

Hinata sneezed loudly into her hands as she covered her mouth in time, receiving a 'bless you' from Sakura as they sat in class, awaiting the teacher's arrival to begin their play rehearsals.

"Nervous?" Sakura asked, unable to suppress the wide smile that was creeping onto her face from her excitement.

Hinata nodded. "Are you?"

"A little, but don't worry, I'm sure we'll do our best," Sakura said in a hushed tone as their first period teacher, Anko, sauntered into the room, slamming her books down and demanding silence.

Once the class was silent, Anko gave out a weary sigh, hands placed on her hips as she addressed the class. "Alright, now that you've calmed down, I'll have the student council president, Neji Hyuuga, and the class president, Gaara, come up to speak to the class about what you will be completing today."

On cue, both Neji and Gaara rose from their seats and moved to the front of the class and Hinata felt the strange sense of anticipation and a little excitement build up in her stomach. She had to do her best now. She had the support of many people and she couldn't let small facts deter her anymore; she was determined to prove that she would change, was changing and had changed. Her fist clenched tightly as she waited for her cousin and Gaara to speak.

"As you are all aware of the fact that today is the day that we begin the play's official rehearsals, I will also inform you that we only have two weeks remaining before the actual performance date," Neji explained, his eyes roaming over the entire class as he spoke in a stern and grave tone. "During which time, I expect you to perfect your acting and backstage working," he said, his tone becoming cold and menacing as he emphasised his expectations, causing a shiver to ripple through the class.

_Geez, he has a scary face,_ Kiba grumbled mentally.

_Why did someone elect such a serious guy to be our student council president?_ Naruto groaned in his mind, shivering at the thought of what may happen to him if he weren't able to perfect his acting.

Gaara's instructing voice cut through the horrified thoughts of the class, "The student council president and I have agreed that it would be best if we were to hold our rehearsals in the school hall. Thus, for the next two weeks, please ensure that each period you are present at the hall, as no one will come and retrieve you from any classes you may be waiting at if you have forgotten. If this is the case and you miss any rehearsals, you will be instantly stripped of your part in the play," he explained, pushing up his glasses smoothly.

_Cold-hearted. Who elected these people?_ the entire class thought as a draft blew in through the open windows.

"So then, now that that has been explained clearly, we will be moving to the school hall to begin our official rehearsals," Neji said to a chorus of cheers.

Along with the rest of the class, Hinata rose from her seat, trembling. _It's alright_, she thought, placing a hand over her heart to calm herself. _As long as I do my best..._

"Hinata!" Sakura called, pumping her fist in excitement. "Let's go!"

Nodding her head, Hinata followed close behind her bubblegum-haired friend, catching Sakura's infectious enthusiasm, albeit nervous, and prepared for whatever may lay in the weeks ahead.

...

Needless to say, the Akatsuki did not see much of Hinata that week and when she did arrive to some lunches, Tobi would be overjoyed, to the point where he needed to be restrained by Deidara and Hidan (which by this time has become the norm).

"Pet-chan! Pet-chan! I'm so happy to see you!" Tobi sobbed during lunchtime on a Friday afternoon as he struggled against Deidara and Hidan's hold.

Hinata sweat dropped at the sight before her, forcing a smile. "I-I'm glad to see Tobi-senpai as well," she replied innocently, her cheeks tinged a slight rouge as she took her usual seat on the rooftop.

Gasping, Tobi struggled even more against his restraints. "That is the smile of an angel! Lighting the heavens and the earth! Oh how I have missed basking in this heavenly light!" he cried, his voice trembling as if he were weeping with joy.

"Damn, I wish I could just knock this idiot out, hn," Deidara said through gritted teeth, vein popping out in his forehead.

"You're telling me," Hidan said, growling in annoyance as Tobi continued to thrash about.

"Release me! Release me, I say!"

"Shut the fuck up! Damn, you're annoying!"

Hinata laughed nervously, hoping that Tobi would calm down and that no violence would ensue if he continued acting "strangely".

"So, one more week after this, eh?" Kisame's amused voice interrupted Hinata's thoughts and she turned to him smilingly.

"Y-yes," she replied cheerily, nodding her head.

"Fuck! One more week of this hell!" cursed Hidan as he and Deidara continued to struggle with Tobi.

Laughing nervously once more, Hinata sweat dropped as Tobi began to ramble on about "an angel's smile" which made no sense to her.

"So, how're you doing?" Kisame asked, grinning as Hinata turned her attention to him again.

"Eh?"

Kisame's grin widened at her confusion. "Your acting of course," he put in, "how's it going?"

At this, most of the Akatsuki turned their attention to the blushing Hinata who looked down at her hands, fidgeting nervously, embarrassed as she spoke up, "W-well... w-well... I-I don't really know..." she paused, swirling her index fingers around one another, "... b-but... I th-think I'm getting better... I keep doing my best!" Hinata exclaimed, suddenly clenching her right fist tightly in determination. "So..." she hesitated once again, this time with all the Akatsuki staring at her in surprise and wonder.

They were seeing a strange sort of courage from Hinata that they had not witnessed before.

"S-so..." Hinata continued, nervous once more, fidgeting with her fingers. "... I'm sure... that I'm alright," she concluded, smiling in embarrassment at her confession.

"AHHH! SO ADORABLE!" wept Tobi as he leapt and embraced Hinata's head, cheek of his mask rubbing against the top of Hinata's head, shocking Hidan and Deidara, who's grips had loosened as Hinata was speaking. "My Pet-chan is far too adorable! Your words deeply impacted my heart! It hit me right here!" Tobi announced dramatically, taking Hinata's hand and placing it over his chest where his heart was, causing her entire face to burn a bright red.

"GET OFF OF HER YOU PERVERT!" yelled Deidara, wrenching Tobi away from Hinata and stomping on the Akatsuki leader furiously.

"I wanted only to bask in the light of my Pet-chan!" Tobi whined defensively.

"BASK IN THIS!"

"AIIEEE! HAVE MERCY! NOT THE EXPLODING CLAY!"

Hinata sweat dropped once again, wondering how a moment with the Akatsuki always resulted in Tobi being violently dealt with.

"So... you are improving?"

Turning to the older Uchiha, Hinata smiled warmly, knowing it was he that had spoken as she could no longer mistake the deep and velvety voice. "I th-think so."

She tilted her head and watched as Itachi gazed off into the distance, face impassive, though she was sure that he was deep in thought. Turning back to her lunch, Hinata pushed the tips of her index fingers together nervously as she summoned her courage to speak, gulping before she forced her lips to part. "W-would I-Itachi-s-senpai...?" Her throat closed up.

Itachi turned his cool gaze to her. "Would I, what?"

Hinata turned her burning face away, heart hammering too fast, words automatically leaving her mouth, "It's nothing."

There was a pause where Itachi simply stared at the back of Hinata's head before nodding and turning away. "I see."

Clenching her fist, Hinata opened her lunchbox and began to eat slowly, disappointed in herself. She had wanted to ask if the older Uchiha was interested in watching the play, but thought that she may be continuing to intrude in something that he had explained earlier to be none of her business. She wondered if Itachi wanted to watch it because of his brother. Because Hinata felt that somehow, she wanted the two to act as true brothers. So that there were no more replacements; so that others would see the two Uchiha's as siblings rather than enemies.

But why was she so concerned over this? She couldn't understand it herself, but it was what she wanted. She had realised the other week that she simply wanted them to get along. To be happy. It was because at that moment, Hinata could tell, there was no happiness for either sibling, and it was upsetting for her to see that.

_Why does there seem to be such sadness and hate there?_ Hinata thought, resting her chopstick in her lunchbox as she thought. _Why is there such unhappiness there?_

_..._

Sakura stood before Naruto, face turned away, an expression of hate and disgust marring her face. "I refuse," she said through clenched teeth, seething with anger, her fists clenched tightly, nails biting deep into her palms.

Angered by this, Naruto seized Sakura's chin and turned her face roughly, forcing her to look at his sneering face.

A shiver zipped down Sakura's spine as she stared into the blonde's steely blue gaze.

"Don't kid yourself, Kushinada. I'm offering you freedom and why would you reject something as valuable as that?"

It was Monday morning of the second and final week of rehearsals, and Hinata watched in awe at Naruto's amazing performance. He had improved impressively since their first ever rehearsal-alongside every other actor-, and now he stood before the class, causing the hair on the back of Hinata's neck to stand on end as she watched his portrayal of the villain, Yamano Orochi.

"Leave me be, snake!" Sakura hissed venomously, pulling her face away and stepping back as she glared at Naruto, fists clenched to the point were her knuckles burned white.

Hinata placed her clenched hands over her chest in fear and anticipation. _Run, Kushinada!_ she thought in spite of herself. She knew how the story unfolded, and yet, she could not rid herself of the hope that somehow, the Sharingan Princess would avoid her grim fate.

"Pretty intense, Naruto's really improved," Kiba commented, also as absorbed as Hinata.

Nodding mutely, Hinata continued to watch the performance before her, unable to tear her eyes away.

"Well, after all, Naruto and Sakura are very close friends, so of course Sakura had a hand in helping him improve," Sai explained, eyes following Naruto and Sakura's movements on the stage.

"I WILL NOT!" Sakura screeched, slapping Naruto's hand away.

Hands clenched tighter, Hinata chewed on her lip, knowing what would happen next, though praying it wouldn't.

Kiba glanced over in surprise at Hinata. "Oi, Hinata, are you okay? You're on edge there."

"I-it's suspenseful..." Hinata replied honestly, gulping as she watched the scene of the play unfold before her.

Turning back to Naruto and Sakura's performance, Kiba couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Gee, whoever wrote the play was damn good."

...

Kisame sneezed loudly.

"Gesundheit, Kiissammee!" Tobi called cheerily during PE class, waving as he jogged merrily across the field.

Deidara and Hidan glared moodily at him.

"My, he's cheerful, hn," Deidara commented darkly.

"It's because the Hyuuga was with us for recess. But damn is he annoying!" Hidan grumbled, walking up to the home base mat to bat.

Gai had insisted the class play a "fierce battle of springtime youth" on the baseball field, much to the Jounin class' displeasure, soon had them threatening homicide when Gai announced he would participate also as the pitcher, slinging the balls at an impossible speed to the awaiting batter.

"Prepare yourself, Hidan!" Gai said with his trademark sparkling smile. "And show me your springtime of youth!"

Hidan narrowed his eyes. "Oi, Gai-sensei! Kiss my uncaring springtime ass!"

An angered spark gleamed in Gai's eyes as he pumped himself up. "For that foul language, I shall use my super speed ball! Prepare yourself for an attack!" Gai shouted as he hurled the ball at Hidan, the ball whistling through the air.

A smirk pulled at Hidan's lips and he swung his bat forward, hitting the ball just in time and sending it hurtling up into the sky, shocking Gai.

"INCONCEIVABLE!" Gai cried as he watched the ball slice through the air high above him.

"Damn straight! Now what, Gai-sensei?" Hidan said smugly, as he walked leisurely to the next base, watching the PE teacher's startled reaction to his hit.

Recovered, Gai turned to Hidan, giving him the thumbs up and blinding smile. "Nice!"

A vein popped out on Hidan's forehead as he paced to the next base. "Quit doing that, you stupid idiot!"

"Someone catch that ball!" Kisame shouted, cupping his hands around his grinning mouth.

"Tobi will! Tobi will!" shouted the masked Akatsuki leader excitedly, dashing hurriedly for the ball, arms outstretched.

"Don't exert yourself, idiot," muttered Pein as Tobi rushed past the base he stood at, the ball approaching.

"Tobi's going to catch it! Tobi's going to-!"

The ball struck Tobi's face and remained where it was: stuck in the eyehole of the Akatsuki leader's mask. "AHA! TOBI CAUGHT IT!"

"In reality, he didn't," Zetsu put in, cleaning his teeth with a pick as he sat lazily at one of the bases.

Gai stared in awe and amazement at the ball stuck in Tobi's mask's eyehole before also giving him the thumbs up. "Ooh! Nice catch!" Spinning around, he then pointed at Hidan who had stopped walking from base to base, staring dumbstruck at Tobi. "You sir, are OUUUUTT!"

Clenching an angered fist, Hidan flung his bat to the floor unceremoniously, yelling, "I DIDN'T WANT TO PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME ANYWAY!" before turning on his heel and storming away immaturely.

"What an idiot," Deidara muttered, slapping his forehead before turning back to the expressionless Uchiha beside him. "So, you say you've already got the tickets ready to go? We're really going to be watching Hinata-chan perform?" the blonde-haired art student asked with interest.

"Yes," Itachi replied coolly, gazing away with disinterest.

Deidara clenched his fist angrily. _Damn you and your apathy!_ he growled mentally, _I wish I could be that damn cool!_

"But why so disinterested?" Deidara asked through gritted teeth, still annoyed with the Uchiha's cool indifference. "I thought you would be, at the very least, pleased with being able to witness Hinata-chan's debut."

"You talk too much, idiot," Sasori put in, causing Deidara to whip his head in his direction and hiss at him in aggravation.

"I wasn't talking to you!"

"I was, however, talking to you."

Kisame snicked as they continued to argue, grinning broadly as he turned to the silent Uchiha. "Have something you're busy planning to do?" he asked, knowing the Uchiha a little better than the rest of the Akatsuki.

Itachi was silent as he returned his gaze to the baseball game, watching as Gai wept over what he referred to as "the beauty of youth"—basically someone had hit the baseball and sent it soaring above the heads of everyone and into the stadium seats. "Yes," he replied quietly. "I have something important to attend to."

...

Blood gushed out of the wound in Sasuke's side and he clamped his hand tightly over it, gritting his teeth, attempting to ignore the unbearable pain, blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth. "I… will not… give up… Kushinada…" he gasped before collapsing, his knees having given way beneath him, his cheek pressed painfully against the floor as he struggled to push himself back up one-handed, too weak to muster any energy.

Footsteps sounded across the floor; it trembled ever so slightly and Sasuke looked up dazed at the figure that loomed over him. Desperately clinging to consciousness, Sasuke found he could no longer summon any strength to keep his eyes open; they slowly closed as he breathed once more, "Kushinada," before he finally lost the battle, his eyes closing as he lost consciousness.

The class applauded, amazed by the Uchiha's blatant improvement over the past two weeks—everyone was more than surprised and amazed that both Uchiha and Uzumaki had worked extraordinarily hard to improve their acting abilities.

Sasuke was pulled to his feet by Gaara, who flashed a brief smile, patting him on the shoulder, complimenting him on his improvement as he walked across the stage to where Neji stood, tight-lipped, refusing to acknowledge the Uchiha's brilliant performance.

Smirking triumphantly to himself and highly amused by the Hyuuga's reaction, Sasuke walked across the stage towards the stairs, climbing down it, pushing his damp bangs out of his eyes, brows creasing together as a familiar figure approached him.

Hinata rushed up to the Uchiha smiling, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright with excitement. "U-Uchiha-san! Th-that was great!"

Sasuke brushed his hair off of his damp forehead. "You were watching?"

"Y-yes! You were w-wonderful!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining with honesty.

Sasuke smirked. "And do you think I was better than Naruto?"

"Eh?" Confusion crossed the Hyuuga's face.

"Was I better than Naruto?" he pressed, impatient.

"Uh-m... I s-suppose so...?" Hinata said in more of a question than an actual statement, her eyes wide with uncertainty.

Sighing, Sasuke ran his hand wearily through his hair before downing some water. Why did his brother find such interest in this dull girl? What was it about her that attracted him? _After all_, Sasuke thought, _she's just a stupid girl and they're all useless from my experience. Simply toys to play with and nothing is gained if you take unusual interest in them. _

Surely, there was something about the Hyuuga that was advantageous to the older Uchiha. He paused, trying to think of the advantages he would have if she finally understood what he wanted and accepted. The only thing about her that was advantageous to him besides the fact that he would finally defeat his brother was that she had previously provided him with fresh tomatoes everyday. After winning her over, he would have nothing else to do with her and it would only result in him discarding her like he did to so many other girls. _What a pity_, he thought dully, sipping some more water, _no more tomatoes for me_.

"That will be all for today!" Neji called from the front of the stage, clapping his hands together to gain attention from the class. "There shall be more rehearsing for the rest of this week as already mentioned previously. Please continue to rehearse at home in your own time. Thank you for your hard work," he said with a nod before dismissing the class from the theatre.

Hinata turned her attention back to Sasuke and bowed, a smile lighting her face as she did so. "Goodbye, Uchiha-san," she said warmly, Sasuke staring at her as she turned and hurried away, catching up to the waiting Sakura who chattered happily with her as they made their way through the theatre chairs in the direction of the theatre exit.

Picking his bag up and shouldering it, Sasuke searched the crowd of students and spotted the indigo-coloured hair amongst the exiting class and thought to himself how unusual it was that just when he thought that there was nothing of interest in someone, they always managed to surprise him with something quite interesting.

An arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him back into a headlock, knuckles being pressed and rubbed humorously against the top of his head, the unmistakable snicker of Naruto reaching the unamused Uchiha's ears.

"Get off, dobe," Sasuke grumbled in annoyance.

Those surprising people always managed to annoy him.

...

Needless to say, Sasuke was exhausted as he pushed open the Uchiha residence's door, wiping the gleaming sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand, relieved to be out of the heat of the afternoon sun, shrugging out of his school jacket and tossing it onto the lounge room sofa. "It's hot," he sighed, pacing into the kitchen and stopping in his tracks at the sight of Itachi Uchiha seated at the dining room table, nonchalantly eating chocolate chip mint ice-cream on a waffle cone, indifferent to Sasuke's presence and glaring eyes.

"Hello, Sasuke," Itachi greeted coolly, holding out the ice-cream in his hand, face blank of any emotion as he stared pointedly at his younger brother.

Sasuke's brow twitched. "I don't like sweet things," he replied crisply, eyes narrowed, the corner of his upper lip turned up in contempt.

"I wasn't offering," Itachi replied, turning away as he continued to calmly eat the ice-cream.

"You bold-faced liar!" Sasuke snarled, shaking his clenched fist in anger at him, a vein pulsating painfully clear in his neck. "You held it out and offered it to me!" he yelled, teeth grinding in irritation.

"I do not recall such things. Quite bold accusations on your behalf," Itachi said, continuing to eat the ice-cream at a leisurely pace.

"Lying scoundrel!" Sasuke yelled, slamming his fist down upon the kitchen table.

"I do not understand why you insist on referring to me as a liar."

Once again, there didn't seem to be any peace within the Uchiha residence.

...

End of chapter eight.

A/N: Ugh... I hate myself. I apologise that this was late and pathetic and I still haven't even reached the actual play because I just go off on a tangent for every single chapter and I know I suck royally right now but please forgive me, I have a lot of school work to do right now and I _will_ try and make up for this rubbish with chapter nine which should be done much sooner than this one (though, I can't make absolute promises).

**Thank you so much all those who review! You make my day! :)** Please continue to read and support this story with your lovely reviews! **You guys are awesome!**


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